National Express Foundation: Community Grant Scheme

Overview

Young people across the UK are facing new challenges, particularly those associated with daily living. The cost of living has increased, key youth services, such as local community centres, continue to reduce in numbers, and the consequences of the pandemic and reduced social interaction and education are still being felt by young people, particularly from a wellbeing perspective.

To help groups that support young people continue to build back from the pandemic, the trustees of the Foundation have chosen to use its 2023 funding round to support initiatives which fit into one or more of the following funding themes.

• Diversionary Activities - Initiatives that specifically focus on engaging with young people, providing them support and detering anti-social behaviour
• Environmental - Initiatives could include but are not limited to: encouraging young people to engage with the outdoors and support their environment
• Employability - Initiatives that directly or indirectly equip young people with skills, experience or qualifications that will support them gaining access to employment
• Wellbeing - Initiatives that positively impact or provide support to young people through physical activity, mental health and social interaction

Their funding programme for 2023 is now open to all community groups delivering services across the UK.

Funding Level

Grants of £1,000, £2,500, or £5,000 are available.

The funding is for projects which begin in the third quarter of 2023.

They are asking community groups to apply for specific sums of money, saying what they could deliver for either £1,000, £2,500 or £5,000. Your application should clearly set out what you could achieve if you were awarded the money.

If you are applying for one of the larger value grants, it is very important that your application is robust, comprehensive and clearly sets out how you will deliver your project and how it might benefit a large number of young people - potentially over a longer period than one year.

Who Can Apply

In 2023, applications will be accepted the following types of organisations across the UK:

• An Unincorporated Association
• Charity
• Community Interest Company (CIC)
• Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)
• Voluntary Group
• Sport and Community Clubs

To be eligible, applicants must:

• Have an annual turnover of less than £250,000*
• Be able to provide a reference from a local person or group who can provide supporting evidence of the community activity they do.
• Be able to provide evidence of a constitution and an independent bank account.
• Have evidence of a commitment to safeguarding within their organisation.

*Funding applications from organisations who turnover more than £250,000 annually will be considered, providing they can guarantee match funding in-kind from another organisation or grant.

What are they looking for

Applications which:

• Focus on young people aged between 15 and 24
• Meet the requirement to support young people as they continue to build out of the pandemic
• Involve or benefit a large number of young people – a minimum of ten
• Deliver a sustained programme of activity over a number of months
• Ensure that anyone employed on the projects is paid a minimum of the prevailing Real Living Wage rate
• Have specific key milestones or dates that allow the Foundation to get involved with the project
• Show how you will seek to minimise your impact on the environment
• Provide a clear plan on how they will use social media to promote the project
• Are unique to National Express Foundation and we are the sole funding source for the activity
• Provide a clear budget breakdown
• Set out a plan for measuring the impact of the activity

Previous awardees

Notes

National Express is an accredited Living Wage Foundation employer in the UK. In support of this, the National Express Foundation wishes to encourage the payment of the Living Wage by organisations they support.

They are asking the organisations to consider paying the Living Wage Foundation rate. If you are applying for Foundation funding that will contribute to staff costs, they would encourage you to pay any salaries or wages that their funding will support at the Living Wage Foundation rate or above. However, they appreciate there may be specific circumstances which make this difficult. For 2023, the real Living Wage is currently set at £10.90 per hour outside of London. You should confirm the hourly rate you intend to pay in your application