Funding and Partnerships

CVA and Croydon Commitment Launch Grassroots Grants

CVA work in partnership with Croydon Commitment each year to offer small grants to voluntary and community groups in Croydon.

This year in celebration of the 15th year, as well as a small grant Croydon Commitment will partner with up to 15 Croydon based charities and community groups for 12 months.

They will invest and partner with grassroots organisations across Croydon who have the expertise, networks and local knowledge to make sustainable change in our community. In addition to receiving their grant award, each successful award winner will have the benefit of working with the Croydon Commitment team and its business partners to provide added value from offering in-kind resources, mentoring and providing workshops on marketing, finance and insurance.

The fund is inviting proposals across five strategic pillars:

Education
Employment
Environment
Social Inclusion
Health and Wellbeing

Process:
There is a pre-eligibility form to complete before proceeding to the application form. You can apply online or download forms and email to info@croydoncommitment.org.uk.
Please note that you will be asked a few details about your project as well as your organisation if you apply online and you cannot save the form and go back to it. It could be a good idea to have a look at the form first - links and forms are below - to see what information is needed.

The deadline to complete the pre-eligibility form is 11am Tuesday 30th April 2019.

You are strongly advised to read the guidelines before applying.

Access online pre-eligibility form

Download pre-eligibility form

Access online application form

Download application form

Download guidelines

Need some extra support?
We are offering a support workshops on 29 April, download workshop flyer.

The deadline for your complete application is 7 May 2019, 11am

Any queries?
Email carole.short@cvalive.org.uk

Croydon Commitment

Information on where to find funding

In our free weekly e-bulletin CVA Updates, which comes out every two weeks
In our Latest Funding opportunities list
Through a free Grants search (Open4funding)

And improve your fundraising skills:

By attending our Fundraising training sessions
By getting our feedback on your completed funding applications, tips and suggestions on how to improve it, useful templates and resources (grassroots@cvalive.org.uk)
By reading the Big Lottery tips on how to keep your outcomes clear, specific and realistic Read more

Partnerships & Fund Management

Partnership is the name of the game when it comes to winning bids and CVA has worked proactively to try and support local groups to come together as consortia or put in partnership bids.

CVA also supports its partners to bring extra funding into Croydon VCS – via the Croydon Commitment to Grassroots Trust grants by managing the funds in a way that makes them accessible to all.

In 2016 The Grassroots Trust distributed £11,798 to six local groups.

Croydon Health and Employment Partnership (CHEP)

Gamechanger

Free Funding Searches

OPEN4CROYDON

Open4Croydon allows organisations to conduct their own online searches on Open4Croydon, free of charge. You will have to answer a few simple questions about your organisation and the project you wish to undertake. Once you have done this, Open4Croydon will give you an overview of the funding schemes which may be available for your project.

Funding Central

If your organisation's annual income is under £100,000 you can register with Funding Central and search for funding free.

Latest Funding Opportunities

New Project! We Stand Together

Following Croydon's #WeStandTogether Campaign of 2017, CVA pledged to find a way to help refugees and those from new communities to feel more integrated into the wider community.

CVA successfully applied to the Mayor's London Together Campaign, managed by Comic Relief to deliver a new project that uses sport as a tool to improve social integration between refugees and the mainstream sports sector in Croydon.

We will work with community organisations who are supporting refugees and are interested in the impact that sport and physical activity can have on an individuals' mental and physical wellbeing.

We will focus on creating a team of volunteer activators, who will be refugees themselves, and who are passionate about using sport to engage people and improve their lives. CVA will train them and support them to set up informal activities for their peers.

However, we are also looking for community sports clubs who want to ensure their clubs are welcoming to all. We will give training and additional support to clubs plus provide a volunteer placement from one of our activators to encourage more refugees to progress into local clubs on a permanent basis.

We aim to provide a collective of 'Croydon Welcomes' sports clubs that will receive additional funding and capacity support to make them more sustainable and more reflective of the community in which they operate. As a spin off, they may also find a new Mo Farah, Victor Moses or Luol Deng amongst their new club members.

Online Fundraising Platforms

Although BT's MyDonate fundraising platform is to close this summer (30 June 2019) there are still plenty of others to consider. Find out more

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