Funding Opportunities
We administer a wide range of grant programmes on behalf of grant-making trusts, business, and the public sector. With over twenty years of experience in this field, we help funding get to the places and projects that need it most, making a real difference to people’s lives.
All our current programmes are listed below, along with deadlines and links to full guidance.
If you’ve already started an application using our online portal, log in here to continue.
Fund status
easyfundraising
Set up a free easyfundraising page for your charity or voluntary organisation and 8,000 retailers will donate money to you when your supporters shop online with them – for free. It doesn’t anything extra as the retailer pays the donation, not the shopper.
Every 3 months, your organisation will receive the money your supporters have raised for you. As the funds you raise are unrestricted, you can spend it on whatever you need.
Eric Wright Charitable Trust
All smaller local organisations working within the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector are encouraged to apply for financial help in providing activities that will make a positive difference to the lives and wellbeing of people of any age. Grants of up to £500 are available.
The grant is available to organisations with an annual income of less than £50,000 (you do not need to be a registered charity to apply).
The fund is administered by Lancaster District CVS on behalf of the Eric Wright Charitable Trust (EWCT) via the LDCVS Bay Foundation. See our guidance notes for more information on the EWCT.
Timescale
Reopens early 2025.
Multiple Applications
Organisations who have received awards from the fund are welcome to apply again.
If you would like to know more about how to complete your application, email [email protected] or telephone 01524 555900.
Pots of Possibility
Closing Loops is a five-year £1.5 million project led by FoodFutures, North Lancashire’s sustainable food partnership.
The scheme is delivered by six local organisations (LESS, Lancaster District CVS, Eggcup, Global Link, Shared Future CIC and Scientists For Global Responsibility), and is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.
Thanks to National Lottery players, it is supporting community-led action and local initiatives to transform waste into a valuable resource, aiming to stimulate a zero-waste, circular and regenerative local economy.
As part of this, £300,000 in small grants will be available through the Pots of Possibility fund to enable charitable organisations, social enterprises, community groups and others in north Lancashire to develop creative ideas to help communities and the environment to flourish.
Apply to Community Pots for grants worth up to £5,000 and Your Pots for grants between £5,000 and £10,000.
Timescale
Your Pots
Round three opens for applications in autumn 2025
Community Pots
Round three opens for applications in spring 2025
Multiple Applications
Organisations can only submit one application per round. If your organisation has had a Pots of Possibility grant in a previous round you are able to apply again, however you must have completed your project and your End of Grant Return before submitting a new application.
For support with the application process, eligibility, documentation and timescales, contact LDCVS by email at [email protected] or by telephone on 01524 555900.
For advice about Closing Loops themes, project ideas, and the fund’s apporoach to zero-waste and regenerative initatives, contact Jo Stocking, Closing Loops REconomy Coordinator by email at [email protected]
Lancaster Community Fund
Lancaster City Council and Lancaster District CVS invite local charities and community groups to apply to the Lancaster Community Fund. Grants of up to £1,000 are available to volunteer organisations in Lancaster District that need help to deliver projects and activities for the benefit of local people.
The fund has three main priorities:
- Projects that increase community involvement, build community wealth and resilience.
- Projects that contribute towards carbon reduction and a more sustainable district.
- Projects that contribute to individual and community wellbeing
Timescale
Round three opens 30 Jan 2025. Apply by 11:59pm on 28 Feb 2025
Criteria
Applications are particularly welcomed from groups working in disadvantaged communities or from new and smaller grassroots groups with low income.
If you have any questions about the fund or how to complete your application, email [email protected] or telephone 01524 555900
Lancaster District Street Aid
Donations to Street Aid generate a pot of funding that individuals can apply for in partnership with a supporting organisation (voluntary sector or local authority), to get the sort of practical help they need to stay off the streets for good.
Types of support that can be applied for via the scheme include access to housing, furniture and other home essentials, education/training courses, clothing for job interviews, equipment/materials for hobbies and interests, and transport to interviews/place of work.
Contactless terminals offering a fixed £3 donation have been installed in windows at Dalton Square Pharmacy (Gage Street, Lancaster), Citizens Advice North Lancashire (George Street, Lancaster and Queen Street, Morecambe), Festival Market, and Treasure Island (Marine Road Central, Morecambe)
Alternatively, donors can give £3 by texting STREET to 70450 (texts will cost the donation amount plus one standard network rate message), and make larger donations via TotalGiving.
Information for sponsor organisations
Organisations who want to sponsor an application for aid to a formerly homeless or currently vulnerably housed person can access our guidance notes here and start their application here.
To find out more about how to complete your application, email [email protected] or telephone 01524 555900.
“Having the bus vouchers made it possible for me to get to my hospital appointments. Having the financial stress of this removed helped me concentrate on my recovery from surgery and other treatments I received. It is a life changing thing being able to access funds like these.
Street Aid not only improved my life it significantly changed it for the good.”
Nat Merriman Fund
Lancaster District CVS administers the Nat Merriman Fund on behalf of the fund’s trustees. The fund was established in memory of Nat, a young Lancaster man that passionately believed in the value of creative and performing arts in the lives of young people, who sadly died in 1994 aged 15.
The fund is open to individual aged 11-25 years old who live in the Lancaster district, as well as organisations that work with them.
Funding up to
- £300 for individuals
- £500 for groups or organisations
Priorities
To enable young people to widen their experience and appreciation of the creative and performing arts.
Applications can now be made online for both individual and group/organisation grants.
If you would like to know more about how to complete your application, email [email protected] or telephone 01524 555900.
Your privacy is important to us, so we will keep your data secure. We need your details to process and manage your funding application. Your information may be processed on our behalf by carefully selected partners. We will not share your information further unless required to do so by law, or at your request. Please see our Data Protection Policy and our Privacy Notice relating to funding applications for more information on how we look after your data.
“We” means Lancaster District Community & Voluntary Solutions, charity number 1127626
