?Awards for All in England, Scotland and Wales has announced its new guidelines, and is still relevant for most local Award groups. It is a simple small grants scheme making awards of between £300 and £10,000. in order to help improve local communities and the lives of people most in need. They want to fund projects that meet one or more of the following outcomes: People have better chances in life - with better access to training and development to improve their life skills.  Stronger communities - with more active citizens working together to tackle their problems.  Improved rural and urban environments - which communities are better able to access and enjoy.  Healthier and more active people and communities.
The DofE easily meets their first second and fourth criteria, but you will have to explain this rather than assume that they will understand what The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is and the effect it has.
The application form is short and simple. You will find out if you are successful within six weeks. Find out more from their website www.awardsforall.org.uk 

How to fundraise: www.how2fundraise.org is a website run by the Institute of Fundraising for volunteer fundraisers which provides lots of useful advice for raising funds.

Learning Launchpad: A new fund called Learning Launchpad has opened to support young people aged 14-25 who have an innovative idea that will enable them to be successful outside the confines of academia. The fund operates in England, Scotland and Wales and is open to individuals, groups or early-stage organisations regardless of whether they are charities, social enterprises or for-profit organisations. The fund will support projects designed by young people that will both develop themselves and encourage social change within disadvantaged communities. Initial support can be for up to £30,000, followed by stage-two opportunities up to £100,000. Find out more from their website: www.learninglaunchpad.org/portfolio.php Closing date: The first closing date is 31 March 2009 with further opportunities later in the year.

Gannett Foundation: There’s another opportunity for local organisations to apply for grants from the Gannett Foundation. Projects need to take a creative approach to local community needs that will benefit a large number of people. The maximum grant is £50,000 and projects must take place within the catchment area of one of more than 300 newspapers published by the American Gannett Corporation and its subsidiary Newsquest Media Group.
There’s a Newsquest contacts list at www.newsquest.co.uk/contacts, and a newspaper listing at www.newsquest.co.uk/links where you can find out if there is a Newsquest publication near you. Applications have to be made to the local newspaper, so go to their website and search under Gannett Foundation if the information is not immediately obvious. There is an application form. It can be completed online at www.gannettfoundation.org/applicationUK then printed and sent to your local newspaper office.  Closing date: There are two application cycles a year. The next closing date is 25 March 2009.

Grassroots Grants: Small local voluntary and community groups can apply for grants under the Government’s new £80m Grassroots Grants. The three-year programme is run by the Community Development Foundation and is open to any local community groups with annual income below £20,000. Groups can apply for awards of between £250 and £5,000 to fund community activities. The application process is simple and grants will be distributed directly through local funders. Find out more from www.cdf.org.uk

Is there a local Mayor’s fund that supports individual young people to achieve? Quite a lot of them do,and it is a good idea to ring the Mayor’s Office and ask. The office staff may well know more about it than the Mayor personally, as they have probably been around for longer.

The Angus Alnatt Charitable Foundation makes grants towards musical and water-based activities for young people. Write to them c/o Marian Durban, 2 The Court, High Street, HARWELL, Oxfordshire OX11 0EY.

For some areas of the UK, The Coalfields Regeneration Trust may be helpful. They probably will not fund individual expeditions but may support that aspect of your group’s work (or a network of local groups’ work) for a year or longer. Find out more from www.coalfields-regen.org.uk

Local Lions, Soroptomist, Round Table, Rotary and Freemasons branches may also have funding available to help individuals or groups.

There are also the DofE’s Serco Bursary and the Jubilee Fund, managed through our Regional and National Offices.

Although the Lottery’s ‘Awards for All’ programme ended in March 2009, it is still possible to apply for small grants to the different Lottery distributors. This may be through the Arts Council’s ‘Grants for the Arts’ programme giving grants of £1,000+. Look on their websites www.artscouncil.org.uk or www.artscouncil-ni.org.uk for full details.

It could also be worth applying to The Big Lottery Fund’s new small grants programme, giving grants of £300 and over to local  community organisations. Visit www.biglotteryfund.org.uk or www.lotteryfunding.org.uk

For help with sports officiating skills, there is Sport England’s small grants programme, and similar programmes in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Further information can be found at www.sportengland.org.uk and www.sportsni.net Information on how these programmes are running in Wales can be found at www.awardsforall.org.uk

The Heritage Lottery Fund may be willing to support some forms of local history or heritage projects and have two small grants programmes:  Their ‘Young Roots’ programme aims to involve 13-25 year-olds in finding out about their heritage, developing skills, building confidence and promoting community involvement. Their ‘Your Heritage’ scheme provides grants of between £3,000 and £50,000 to support projects that relate to the UK’s local, regional or national heritage. HLF welcomes applications that help people to learn about, look after and celebrate heritage in a fun and enjoyable way. More information is available at www.hlf.org.uk

In addition to the Lottery, there are other sources of help, particularly if a particpant’s skill relates to one of ancient craft guilds.  For leatherworking, jewellery making, wine making or working with textiles, for example, it may be worth approaching the appropriate City Livery Company (e.g. The Worshipful Company of Saddlers or the Leathersellers, the Goldsmiths or the Haberdashers).

There are a number of sources of funding for music - for instruments as well as for courses. The Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation funds music-based activities for young people. Write to Marian Durban c/o 2 The Court, High Street, HARWELL, Oxfordshire OX11 0EY. Other trusts worth investigating could include The Countess of Munster Musical Trust www.munstertrust.org.uk  The Friends of Muir Group www.muir.org.uk/fomg.aspx and Old Possum’s Practical Trust www.old-possums-practical-trust.org.uk which all distribute funds throughout the UK.

The Batty Charitable Trust, built by income from the Estate of the late Christina Batty (Christina Foyle), makes grants of between £1000 and £10,000 to smaller charities throughout the UK, especially those working at grass roots and local level. The Trustees have wide interests, with the main stipulation being that grants should make a significant difference to your ability to do carry out the work of the charity. More information can be found at www.battycharitabletrust.org.uk

The Tesco Charity Trust is inviting applications to its Community Awards scheme. Pursuing the Tesco theme of Every Little Helps, the Scheme makes one-off grants of between £1000 and £4000 to provide equipment or practical resources for projects that directly benefit children, the elderly and adults and children with disabilities living in the local communities around Tesco stores. The full application guidelines are available here. Applications can be made online here.

There may well be Trusts with a local remit which will be willing to help. For further information on these it’s worth seeing if your local authority has someone who advises community and third-sector organisations on funding.