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The Neighbourhood Fund

We play a critical role in the region and through our Neighbourhood Fund we will build on our work to support the lives of people and the places they love for generations to come.

The Neighbourhood Fund is all about supporting our local community. There will be £100,000-a-year funding available for neighbourhood community groups which inspire physical activities, education, health and wellbeing and deliver positive environmental outcomes.

 

The type of projects we're funding....

  1. Protect nature and the environment for the benefit of community health and well-being
  2. Providing new opportunities for people to learn and develop
  3. Assisting local projects which bring communities together, virtually or physically – when safe to do so
  4. Supporting the upkeep of local neighbourhood centres and facilities to keep communities strong

 

How the Fund works

 

Funding criteria

Projects must meet one of the key requirements:

  • People: Supporting projects that helps communities and each other stay connected, promote well-being and skills development
  • Community: Supporting projects that mean the most to our customers creating better places to live in and use.
  • Environment: Supporting projects that will help look after our natural environment now and for future generations.

Funding available

The amount in the Fund every year is £100,000. 

 

Community groups can submit projects up to £2,000.

 

Our Fund is delivered in monthly rounds of £10,000.

You can apply through our funding partners ActionFunder where you will have to sign up your community group and upload your project in need of funding. There is no need to make multiple applications per month. If you are unsuccessful in a round your project is automatically carried forward to the next round for consideration. The benefit to you is that you can match with other funding organisations at the same time, increasing your chances of funding.

 

Once the amount of funding available in the Fund is awarded we'll not be able to consider any further applications within the same year. South West Water reserves the right to stop the Fund at any point. We will update our website to make it clear when the cap is reached, or if the Fund is stopped.

 

This Fund is also available to South West Water customers, it is on South West Water's website and will be promoted by South West Water.

 

Who can apply

 

The project must be located within our service area, and funding is available to non-profit organisations only.

Organisations eligible for funding for over £1,000:

  • School, college or academy
  • Voluntary or community organisation
  • Registered charity
  • Constituted group or club
  • Not-for-profit company or Community Interest Company

Funding under £1,000 is available for local community groups such as; cricket club, allotment group, scout group, garden club etc.

To find out if your organisation, and community, is in our service area, click here.

 

 

What we can fund

 

  • Equipment hire and purchase
  • Building materials
  • Skills and training
  • Employee salaries for time dedicated to working directly on the project
  • Professional fees i.e builders or design agency

 

What we can't fund:

  • Applications submitted from a person aged under 18 years old
  • Commercial businesses that make a profit (e.g. limited company, sole trader)
  • Individuals
  • Organisations and projects based outside of our service area
  • Projects where we are not the majority funder and will require further funding to complete
  • Retrospective costs – we will only fund new projects
  • Projects with a political or religious purpose*
  • Projects that have been unsuccessful with their application in the same financial year

*We can fund religious organisations if their project benefits the wider community and doesn’t include religious content.

 

 

Application process

 

We’ve partnered with ActionFunder, an online platform that matches organisations like ours to not-for-profit community groups like yours.

You can apply to our fund through the link below. You’ll be redirected to the ActionFunder portal where you can have a further read about our Neighbourhood Fund. If it all sounds good to you, you can sign up and apply.

ActionFunder will match you with us and our Community Outreach Team will review these matches monthly.

If you’re successful we’ll send you a funding invitation through ActionFunder, and the rest is taken from there. If we can’t offer support on that occasion, you’ll be able to match with other organisations through ActionFunder, or we may revisit you at our next review. Once the amount of funding available in the Fund is awarded, we will not be able to consider any further applications within the same year.

All applications will need to agree to our privacy policy and grant agreement to be eligible for funding. Applications and personal data will be deleted after 12 months in order to track all successful or unsuccessful submissions in the financial year.

 

 

Click here to apply for funding for your project through ActionFunder

 

 

Have a question about the Fund?

If you're struggling to upload your application, or if you'd like to speak to one of our people about this Fund, please email communityfund@southwestwater.co.uk