Applying for a grant

1. Who Can Apply?

Find out

2. View Our Grants

Should you meet our basic eligibility requirements, we encourage you to view our grants page to see what is currently available https://cffc.co.uk/our-grants/ . Each grant programme has unique eligibility, qualifying criteria and deadlines, and these grants are updated regularly.

As an organisation, our goal is to continue to expand our range of funds to benefit the local community. Please continue to check with us as these grants change throughout the year when we secure further funding.

3. Application Form

Each of our grants is unique and have different criteria to successfully qualify within the online application form. These forms can be found on the pages of each individual grant.

Please take this opportunity to tell us about your group and project in as much detail as possible, why you feel it is beneficial and how it meets the needs of the grant programme.

4. How we Decide to Award the Grant or Not

Upon receipt of your application, our Grants Team will review it and carry out our due diligence checks, which are:

  • Are the finance and governance documents in good order? Does your organisation and project meet the priorities of the grant programme?
  • Does your group have the capacity to deliver the project?
  • What is your track record in delivering similar projects?
  • Does the project make sense in terms of what you want to do and when?
  • Does the budget look reasonable?

You may be contacted by the Grants Team if further information is required to support your application.

5. Decision

Our Grants Panel, comprising a number of local independent experts, in partnership with our Trustee Board make the final decision as to whether to give a project a grant. This is based entirely on the initial application, our review and any required supporting information.

This panel typically meet within 12 weeks of the grant deadline.

6. Notification

Should your application be approved, you will be awarded the relevant grant. Successful applicants will usually by emailed within 12 weeks from the initial deadline.

If you are successful, we will email you with:

  • A Funding Agreement to sign and return to us
  • A promotion toolkit with our logos to use
  • Your monitoring form with instructions on what is required.

If you are unsuccessful, you will also be notified by the panel, who will provide any available feedback to justify their decision. Many of our programmes are oversubscribed, so while your application may be strong, there could simply be a lack of available funding.

7. Spending the Grant

If you are successful in your application and meet any conditions we have made, we will require the following before payment can be made:

  • A signed copy of the Funding Agreement
  • A signed copy of the PR Agreement.

8. Your Project

You can now commence your project! Make sure you look at our How to Acknowledge Our Grant to help share what you’re doing. Please ensure that when creating any promotional literature, web or media content to use the provided fund logos.

We always love to receive updates, whether they be photos, videos or quotes, from projects, and can help spread any success stories across our various social media channels.

If you encounter any problems, do not hesitate to contact us and let us use our expertise to help.

9. Monitoring and Evaluation

We work with all the organisations we fund throughout their project to monitor and evaluate their work. The purpose of this is to help you achieve what you set out to do and allows us to provide evidence of the positive impact of your work.

This evidence is used to secure new funds and allows us to do even more great work locally. If you do not send us your monitoring forms by the deadline given, this may affect the outcome of any future applications.