Charities Aid Foundation (CAF): Keystone Fund

Archived Black and minority ethnic Communities Dependants and carers Gender equality and sexual orientation Health, wellbeing and sport Information Technology Miscellaneous organisational development People with disabilities Poverty and deprivation Racial equality Refugees and asylum seekers social enterprise Un/Employed Voluntary and community infrastructure volunteering Antrim & Newtownabbey Ards & North Down Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Belfast City Causeway Coast and Glens Derry City and Strabane England Fermanagh and Omagh Great Britain Lisburn and Castlereagh Mid and East Antrim Mid Ulster Newry, Mourne and Down Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Medium (up to £60,000) Small (up to £10,000)

Track grant Notes

Overview

Introduction

Sharply increased demand for services, economic pressures and an ongoing decline in public donations is putting many smaller charities across the UK under heavy strain.

The Keystone Fund aims to enable locally and regionally-focused charities working towards social equity to become more agile in their support for their communities. It provides a programme of unrestricted grants, networking and access to advice webinars and toolkits.

The legacy of the fund will be greater opportunities for those who need it most, along with charities that are in a stronger position to continue to support them, thereby accelerating progress in society towards a fair and sustainable future for all.

Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) intends that through these grants and access to additional resilience building resources, small charities will be better positioned now and for the future as keystones in their communities.

Grants available

Unrestricted grants, intended to enable charitable organisations in the UK to adapt ways of working, strengthen capacity or build resilience, according to identified needs.
Grants will be awarded between £5,000 and £50,000
Approximately 120 grants will be awarded over 2-3 rounds during 2022-23.
Grant funds must begin to be spent within 6 months of grant payment, but can be carried forward into the following financial year if required to enable flexibility. They should be fully spent within 24 months of grant payment.

Grants will not normally be restricted to specific projects, but they will ask you to tell them how you would like to use the funds. They intend that charitable organisations can use a grant to become more agile in their support for their communities. This might include the costs of leadership time to develop strategy or organisational capacity, or to access additional external expertise, support and advice to develop their resilience plans. Grants might also be used for staff costs, digital costs, overheads, delivery costs or equipment, according to your identified longer-term needs.

In addition, building on CAF’s advisory opportunities for charities across the UK, all grant holders will gain access to webinars, toolkits, and networking opportunities to accelerate their impact.

Who can apply

UK registered charitable organisations (including registered charities and Community Interest Companies)
Addressing social injustice or working towards social equity to build a fairer society for all. These might be organisations which primarily support:
o Refugees in the UK
o People experiencing racial inequity
o People experiencing digital poverty
o People at risk of homelessness
o Deaf and disabled people
o LGBQT+ people
Responding to increased need among their local or regional communities.

They are also interested in hearing from charities which address other social inequities. They appreciate that organisations may be working to remove barriers for people at the intersection of more than one of these areas.

They will focus approximately 50% of the Fund towards organisations supporting refugees in the UK.

Priorities for the Keystone Fund

They will support eligible charitable organisations to:

Adapt their ways of working (eg digital capability, staff and volunteer training, operational challenges)
Bolster their core building blocks (eg governance, strategic planning, capacity building)

This fund is not designed to support direct service provision or capital projects.

To be selected for the Keystone Fund, charitable organisations will be asked to demonstrate:

A clear understanding of the needs and challenges of the communities they serve
An excellent track record of at least 3 years of creating better outcomes for marginalised communities through a range of activities and/or advocacy
In-depth local or regional knowledge and networks
How they have responded to a significantly increased demand for services
An operational or governance structure which provides opportunities for people with lived experience to have a voice or to influence strategy
A reasonably clear idea of what they need to do next to transform or adapt their ways of working and strengthen their building blocks for the future