Up to £5,000 available to charities, Community Interest Companies and credit unions with at least one year’s accounts. The grants support projects that improve people’s knowledge, skills or which provide innovative solutions to overcome social challenges.

For more information please click here

The 2011 Census showed that the number of people providing unpaid care for disabled, sick or elderly relatives and loved ones has risen substantially in the last decade. It reveals Wales still has the highest percentage of residents who are providing care compared with any region in England1.

Census data released in early December 2012 reveals that the number of carers increased from 5.2 million to 5.8 million in England and Wales between 2001 and 2011. The greatest rise has been among those providing over 20 hours care – the point at which caring starts to significantly impact on the health and wellbeing of the carer, and their ability to hold down paid employment alongside their caring responsibilities.

What we will support:

The Caring Wales funding programme is open to applications from organisations working to support unpaid carers, especially young carers and carers of people with the conditions prioritised in our Child Development research fund. The strongest applications to this fund have been from organisations that:

provide a range of carer-centred support services,
demonstrate strong links with other projects, interventions, organisations and services to ensure a holistic family support approach,
are outcomes-focused, and can measure and evaluate changes to their beneficiaries’ circumstances using meaningful monitoring methods
ensure participation of service users in shaping their services,
reach a substantial number of individuals, whilst:
proactively identifying and working with the most isolated and vulnerable carers, and
offering sufficient and meaningful levels of support.

Click here for projects supported under Caring Wales.

WORKING WALES

2008 marked the beginning of the deepest and longest recession of modern times. While its causes are said to be found in centres of economic and political gravity beyond Wales, its effects on the Welsh economy and on the lives of the people of Wales have been both profound and far reaching. Any cushioning effect from the high level of public sector employment in Wales is rapidly diminishing in this time of austerity when there is so much pressure to cut the public sector back. To help address this, the Waterloo Foundation provide funding to a small number of targeted initiatives that help people set up businesses or, in some cases, help people gain permanent paid employment.

Click here for projects supported under Working Wales.

educating wales

The Waterloo Foundation emphatically believes that “our education today is our economy tomorrow” and children must be afforded every opportunity to fulfil their potential during their school years. Therefore applications will be considered under the Educating Wales Fund if they address one (or both) of the following priorities:

The attainment gap in Wales

Studies have found that under-achievement of children in Wales receiving free school meals, may be a significant problem from nursery class onwards. Using the percentage of children receiving school meals as an indicator, children from the poorest families are only half as likely to get five A* – C grades at GCSE as other children and nearly 50% of these children achieve no GCSE passes above a D grade.

Young people are more at risk of spending time ‘not in education, employment or training’ if they have no qualifications. And, statistics show that spending time NEET is a major predictor of later unemployment, low income, depression and poor mental health. Therefore, in order to help reduce the impact that poverty has on the educational attainment of young people, The Waterloo Foundation welcomes applications from organisations who aim to address this attainment gap through student, family and community based interventions.

Increasing the STEM skills of young people in Wales

The importance of STEM skills to the future prosperity of Wales is well established with 42% of employers reporting difficulties recruiting sufficient numbers of STEM staff3 yet there continues to be a decline in the take up of many STEM subjects at school. The number of students taking “traditional” subjects, particularly in physical sciences and maths, has become worryingly low. Evidence suggests that students are avoiding A level subjects that are perceived to be “harder”, including STEM, and it is overwhelmingly state school students who are dropping STEM subjects while independent school students are far more likely to take STEM, and gain top grades in these subjects.

The challenge of this is to help young people in state education recognise how the STEM subjects that they study can lead to rich and varied career pathways. As such, The Waterloo Foundation supports programmes that aim to inspire young people from diverse backgrounds to pursue further qualifications or careers in STEM subjects.

OTHER INFORMATION/ADVICE

Although there is no upper or lower limit to our support, awards made under the Caring Wales programme typically range from £5,000 – £25,000.

Applications from organisations whose primary activity is in the following areas are not eligible:

the arts
animal welfare
heritage
general health
groups with specific agendas (political, religious)

Note: The Waterloo Foundation no longer has a specific fund for community energy projects in Wales. While we are still committed to engaging with the sector, we feel there are other avenues open to community renewable energy projects that are perhaps better suited to their needs. Therefore, if you are a community investigating renewable energy projects, the following organisations may be able to help you in the first instance.

Charities and organisations providing care and services for older people can apply for funding of up to £100,000

The Dunhill Medical Trust are running two schemes – Project Grants and Building and Physical Infrastructure Grants. The Project Grants cover applications of between £5,000 – £40,000 and The Building and Infrastructure Grants are between £5,000 and £100,000.

The application periods for both Project grants and Building and Physical Infrastructure grants are:

• 7 January 2019 – 29 March 2019 (5pm)
• 1 July 2019 – 20 September 2019 (5pm)

Further details and how to apply can be found on the Dunhill Medical trust website: https://dunhillmedical.org.uk/grants-for-community-based-organisations/

A small funding stream for UK registered charities and recognised churches which are raising money for projects is available where the total cost is less than £1million.

If you are raising money for a particular project for which the mainstay is capital costs (building work, refurbishment or the purchase of long-term equipment) or a one-off short-term activity (such as an annual respite break or holiday for disadvantaged young people) and have already raised a third of the total costs, you may be eligible for this.

Further information is available at https://rankfoundation.com/pebble-grants/

Funding of up to £2,000 is available for groups to deliver projects or provide equipment to people in need at the heart of their local communities.

New funding website launched by Third Sector Support Wales to help third sector organisations find funding.

Funding Wales is the new funding search platform for the third sector in Wales.  Developed by Third Sector Support Wales the site enables third sector organisations to search hundreds of grant and loan finance opportunities from local, national and international sources.

Sustainable funding is critical to the work of third sector organisations and the ability to search and identify appropriate sources of funding is an important factor in achieving this.  Third Sector Support Wales decided to develop this platform to help the third sector in Wales attain sustainable funding more easily.

Funding Wales can help organisations in Wales find the funding they need more quickly than ever before.  The search facility helps users to quickly and effectively identify relevant sources of funding.  The site is free to use with a simple registration process, and allows organisations to search for funding by purpose, location and amount with further fields available to refine searches.  The site also allows users to save searches and print off reports.

‘We are delighted to be able to offer a user friendly and efficient platform to search for funding opportunities’ said Dewi Smith, WCVA Sustainable Funding Manager. ‘We recognise the importance of accessible information in relation to funding and hope that this site makes it easier for organisations in Wales to find the funding they need.’

In addition to searching for funding opportunities the site includes news items and case studies, as well as links to support, information and guidance which will ensure that organisations are equipped with all the tools needed to make good funding applications.

In order to have the best chance of securing funding, you should also contact your local CVC or WCVA who can provide dedicated support across a whole host of areas including, sustainable funding, good governance and volunteering.

To start searching hundreds of funding opportunities please visit funding.cymru.

The eligibility stage of the application process for the new Community Asset Development Fund (CADF) is now open on eTenderWales.

CADF supports social businesses that are aiming to bring an asset into community ownership – either by;

• purchasing the asset
• purchasing and renovating the asset
• renovating an existing asset that is not in full use
• equipping an asset 

The type of asset can vary from social/sports clubs, community halls, community hubs, community pubs etc. 

Successful applicants will need to demonstrate how the funded activity will create a positive shift in social impact as well as a positive shift in income generation. 

Alun Jones, head of Social Investment Cymru, said: “We believe this to be a very flexible and highly innovative approach to the funding of assets that will be utilised for the benefit of communities across Wales. The sharing of the risk as well as the sharing of the reward is a key part of the Social Investment Cymru approach, which we hope will lead to the growth of social businesses and enhance their impact. We are already having some interesting conversations and look forward to far more in the future” 

Further information regarding CADF can be found on our information page or for information on the application process please visit the CADF application guidance page. 

In the first instance applicants should contact Social Investment Cymru to discuss your investment idea, email: sic@wcva.org.uk   Telephone: 0300 111 0124 

CADF is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Welsh Government, and is the next strand of investments administered by Social Investment Cymru.