An informal conversation with your local County Councillor to garner their support is needed before an application is considered. You can find out who your local councillors are on the Durham County Council webpage: Your Councillors. Various types of organisations are eligible to apply for neighbourhood budget funding including:
- Registered and unregistered charities
- Co-operatives
- Friendly societies
- Industrial and provident societies
- Companies that are not-for-profit businesses
- Unincorporated associations
- This must not include projects that should be paid for by mainstream budgets.
- Schools and colleges
- This must not include activities/ services they have a statutory responsibility to provide and must not be in school time. The applicant must be directly employed by the school.
Depending on the type of organisation applying various supporting documents will be required in support of the application submitted. This will be advised at the point of applying.
Durham 4 Community
Durham County Council have developed a handy search tool bringing together hundreds of funding schemes in one place. The Durham 4 Community website allows you to search by organisation type, category, or using a keyword, to find a wealth of opportunities. Improving your digital presence, providing support for digital skills and projects that mitigate the digital divide are just some of the initiatives you could get funding for. Register on the site to receive alerts about funding when it becomes available.
County Durham Community Foundation
County Durham Community Foundation is an independent grant-making foundation that provides a range of grants for voluntary and community groups and registered charities as well as individuals. Grants are available covering a range of projects including removing barriers to digital access and they also offer a 30-minute call providing funding advice for your organisation.
Housing associations
Depending on which area you’re based in, you may be able to benefit from funding from your local housing associations. Associations often make local funding available to schemes and projects that make a difference to people’s lives and wellbeing. Believe Housing, Karbon Homes and Livin are just some of the associations that offer funding. Search their websites for further details.
National Lottery Community Fund
The National Lottery use the funds raised by lottery players to give back to communities by the way of grants for community projects. Their ongoing funding awards smaller amounts to projects that meet at least one of the criteria:
- bring people together to build strong relationships in and across communities
- improve the places and spaces that matter to communities
- help more people to reach their potential, by supporting them at the earliest possible stage
- support people, communities and organisations facing more demands and challenges because of the cost-of-living crisis
See what funding you may be eligible to apply for on the National Lottery website
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