How to apply

Funding can be used on core organisation costs, direct project related costs or a combination of both. All costs should support your organisation to deliver against the Funds overarching theme of tackling the immediate impacts of poverty or building resilience to poverty and hardship.

An example of core funding could be a contribution to your organisation’s annual general costs to continue its good work, development work to expand services, or to add in new activities that amplify results. It could also be allocated for expenses that are harder to find funds for, such as rent, utility bills, salaries of senior management, administration, evaluation or impact reporting.

Core funding must be used for the purposes outlined in your application and by the end of September 2026.

Examples of direct project costs could include:

• Support services for people in financial hardship
• Paying staff or volunteer expenses
• Costs for equipment or materials
• Venue hire
• Buying materials and equipment
• Employing seasonal workers to deliver activities for young people, tackling inequality issues

Who can apply?

To be eligible to apply, your organisation must be working in a local area to tackle the immediate impacts of poverty or build resilience to poverty and hardship.

Your governing document should include information about how your organisation specifically supports people at risk of or experiencing poverty. This could include wording along these lines in your aims or objectives:

• To support people in our community experiencing financial hardship
• To address the root causes of poverty, enabling people to build resilience
• To empower those at risk of poverty to achieve long-term financial stability
• To provide support to people experiencing poverty overcome the challenges associated with financial hardship

Voluntary or community organisations, including charities and other not-for-profit organisations, are eligible.

Applications from individuals, profit-making organisations or those with incomes over £250,000 are not eligible for this scheme but you can take a look here at alternative sources of funding.

We will not accept applications where the principle focus is mental health.  We may still fund projects where mental health is part of a wider piece of work (e.g. supporting survivors of domestic violence with their mental health, as part of a wider project), however we won’t fund any applications where mental health work is the principle and sole focus of the application.

How applications will be prioritised

We expect this programme to be significantly oversubscribed. Our 2024/25 programme received more than three times as many applications than the number of grants available. Because of this, we cannot fund every eligible organisation and will be limited in the amount of feedback we can give to unsuccessful applicants.

When making decisions on funding, priority will be given to organisations which meet the following criteria:

Delivering in areas that rank highly on the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). You can check yours here. Please see guidance notes for further instructions.

When assessing applications, we will also take into account the level of deprivation in the area where your organisation is working. Applications from areas that score higher on the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) may be given greater priority.

---

Alternative and accessible formats

Sometimes there are particular reasons why people find it difficult to apply for a grant or access our services. If you experience or anticipate any barriers with our application process, require help to make an application, or access our services and information, please contact Groundwork at comicrelief@groundwork.org.uk or on 0121 237 5800 to discuss the type of support we can provide.

Groundwork UK’s commitment to safeguarding: