Funding Infomation
County Grants Scheme
CCD administers the County Grant Scheme on behalf of Devon District Council. The County Grants Scheme is for capital work projects (e.g. refurbishments, extensions, building costs) on community buildings who can receive grant aid through a 1/3rd matched scheme. In 2006/07, £102,000 was available for village halls under the scheme, in bi-annual, competitive bidding rounds.
Devon County Council present the County Grant Scheme cheque to CCD Village Hall Committee at Broadclyst Village Hall 2006.
Up to a maximum of a 1/3rd (but not more than £15,000) is applied for from CCD. The deadlines for applications are 30th November and 31st May each year. Full guidance notes and an application pack are obtainable by contacting CCD. You should read these notes carefully and then call us to clarify anything [ link to CGS Villages Halls Funding application form ] [ link to CGS Village Halls Guidance Notes]. Note that the scheme is often very over-subscribed (about three times as many applications as we can afford to support), so making a good case for your project is crucial. Your project can not commence until all the funding has been secured, otherwise funders will consider your project retrospective, and therefore invalidate your application.
It is necessary to plan your project correctly and articulate the future benefits the work will have within the community. Community consultation and support is a key factor, for further information on developing a project see the information sheets available (link to information sheets). If any capital works are undertaken within a community building that affect issues of access then an independent access audit needs be undertaken by the village hall. This will need to be submitted with your funding application. For more information see disability access and awareness.
District Contacts
Up to a maximum of a 1/3rd is applied for from your District Council and/or Dartmoor/Exmoor National Parks. The contacts for each District are listed below:
East Devon: Sulina Tallack (Link to East Devon District Council)
Exmoor National Park: (Link to Exmoor National Park)
Dartmoor National Park: Holly Tiffen (Link to Dartmoor National Park)
Mid Devon: Paul Tucker (Link to Mid Devon District Council)
North Devon: Caroline Vernon Jackson or Lucy Thomlinson (Link to North Devon District Council)
South Hams: Amanda Harvey (Link to South Hams District Council)
Teignbridge: Steve Matson (Link to Teignbridge District Council)
Torridge: Anna Malone (Link to Torridge District Council)
West Devon: Rob Sekula (Link to West Devon District Council)
Please ring the district council and speak to the contact listed. You will need to ask about funding for village halls and get information about their application process (sometimes there isn’t one!), deadlines, timelines for decision and level of funding available. In some cases, maximum awards are £3,000 and sometimes as much as £25,000. Please note that CCD can not award more than what the District is prepared to offer.
David Kinross (CCD Senior Projects Manager) offers funding advice at “Meet The Funders Workshop”, Liverton Village Hall, Teignbridge . October 2006.
Age Concern Grants for Older People Groups & Activities
Age Concern Grants – 2006 to July 2007: There are two funding streams currently available for voluntary or charitable organisations working with older people. The ‘Barclays’ fund (maximum £500) is for celebrations and trips, new equipment for expanding services. The ‘Bright Ideas’ fund (maximum £2,000) is capital and/or revenue. Both funds close in July 2008.
Bright Ideas Spring 2008 - Application Guidelines download [Here]
Barclays and Bright Ideas Programme Spring 2007 Assessment Form - download [Here]
Barclays New Programme Application Form - Winter 2007 - download [Here]
Bright Ideas New Programme Application Guidelines - Winter 2007 download [Here]
Bright Ideas Spring 2007 - Application Form final - download [Here]
Community Fundraising
Finally, and most importantly, your community must raise a 1/3rd or more of the costs for the project. Obviously, this can be a challenge particularly for small communities with large project proposals. We suggest that in this current economic climate of low availability of grant funds, you keep your project modest or break it up into yearly phases, applying for funds for each phase ahead of it actually taking place.
Community fundraising is crucial. It may take a while to build up the reserves necessary to fund the project. The more money you have in place, the better any application will look to a prospective funder. Approach your Parish Council early for a proportion of the precept in coming years and make a good case for it! You can also gain small grants of £50 - £500 from various trusts (a list of which can be obtained from CCD). You might also want to look at income-generators such as markets, fairs, sale of local goods, realistic increases in hiring charges, etc. A list of income-generators is published in the March 2005 edition of Village Green, our quarterly publication.
Stokeinteighead Village Hall Committee at the construction site of their new village hall 2006.
Other Funding Sources
There are also £2000 interest-free loans available from CCD (Link to RILF) and larger small-interest loans from ACRE and The Charity Bank. Call CCD for details on the schemes available. There are other sources of capital grants and these should be investigated by your committee at the time when you start planning your project. You should investigate the following:
The Big Lottery Fund (Reaching Communities and Community Buildings Fund) (Link to The Big Lottery Fund)
Awards for All (Link to Awards for All)
Landfill Tax Credit Scheme (Link to SWEET)
Heritage Lottery Fund (Link to Heritage Lottery)
Low Carbon Buildings Programme (Link to LCBP)
All of these grant schemes have website presence, so perhaps do some research on the net first. You can then approach Council for Voluntary Services or CCD for more specific guidance on approaching one or more of these funders [Link to Funding Advisors] .
Not to be missed out, do consider revenue sources of funding such as funds for tutors for adult learning classes and funds for co-ordinating the start-up of an after-school scheme for children. Social enterprising solutions to community needs (e.g. local farm produce sold two mornings weekly from the Hall) are also worth setting up with pots of grant funding, and will bring in additional income (i.e., surplus) which can be pumped into your refurbishment project.
Do keep CCD aware of your current project plans and send us updates to help us help you better: [charlotte2@devonrcc.org.uk ] and [davidk@devonrcc.org.uk]. Or why not drop us your latest newsletter or parish magazine article by post?
