Community Investment Funding

We’re here to make your grant application as smooth as possible – and often it starts with a chat about your group and your needs.

You might be an established organisation, or you might be a group of people who want to improve things in your area but you’ve no idea where to start.

So, start here. You’ll find lots of useful information.

And if you would just like to chat through your plans, don’t hesitate to contact the team. In fact, we encourage you to chat to us before you put in application.

Talk to us now so that we can help you ensure your bid is as thorough and well thought through as possible, with all the supporting evidence you need. That way, when you’re ready to put in a grant application, you’re much more likely to be successful.

Properly constituted private, public and third sector organisations may apply for funding. Organisations may also apply in partnership but would require one organisation to act as lead organisation for the partnership and ‘accountable body’ for the funding.

If you are an unconstituted organisation it might be possible for another organisation to apply for funding on your behalf

Individuals may not apply for funding for their own personal use.

Here are some examples:

Economic Development
For example, employment opportunities, job creation, skills development, education or training, promotion of local enterprise, long-term economic development or economic diversification

Natural or Built Environment
Including cultural and natural heritage, especially where economic benefits, for example through tourism, can be demonstrated

Community Wellbeing
For example, improvements to community facilities, enhancement of the quality of life or health and well-being of the community

You can apply for a small, medium or large grant:

Small grants – under £10,000

Medium grants – above £10,000 to £50,000

Large grants – above £50,000

We always recommend you contact the team to discuss your grant request and funding needs before applying.

This would be covered in your Grant Acceptance Agreement. It would be specific to each project and relate to the information you have provided on your application form about your expected project lifetime.  All eligible expenditure must be incurred during the lifetime of the project.

Ineligible expenditure includes:

• Paid-for lobbying, which means using grant funds to fund lobbying (via an external firm or in-house staff) in order to undertake activities intended to influence or attempt to influence Parliament, Government or political activity; or attempting to influence legislative or regulatory action;
• Using grant funds to directly enable one part of government to challenge another on topics unrelated to the agreed purpose of the grant;
• Using grant funding to petition for additional funding;
• Expenses such as for entertaining, specifically aimed at exerting undue influence to change government policy;
• Input VAT reclaimable by the grant recipient from HMRC; and
• Payments for activities of a party political or exclusively religious nature.

Other examples of expenditure, which might be prohibited, include the following:

• Contributions in kind;
• Interest payments or service charge payments for finance leases;
• Gifts, Hospitality, prizes;
• Statutory fines, criminal fines or penalties;
• Payments for works or activities which the grant recipient, or any member of their Partnership has a statutory duty to undertake, or that are fully funded by other sources;
• Bad debts to related parties; and
• Payments for unfair dismissal or other compensation.

Applications for funding will be assessed by the South Copeland Community Investment Panel every eight weeks. You will then be notified of the outcome and any next steps.