Frequently Asked Questions: Communities Building Economic Change

Our funding is core and flexible, so your organisation can use it however you feel will best support your frontline work and long-term strategic objectives. This may include staff salaries, overheads, programme activities, organisational development, partnerships, collaboration, data collection, and learning.

Funding cannot cover capital costs, except for essential small equipment, such as laptops. For example, we will not fund the capital costs of standalone retrofit projects that focus primarily on physical improvements to buildings.

For more information on what we can and can’t fund, please refer to our General eligibility and exclusions or our downloadable <Funding Guidelines.>

Yes. As long as your work fits within one of our funding priorities, we are interested in activities that aim to drive long-term systemic change at both local and national levels. We understand that the routes to achieving change will vary depending on the issues you’re working on. 

For applications involving campaigning, our team will consider whether your organisation’s work:

• is politically non-partisan, i.e. neutral and not affiliated with any political party;
• is mission-aligned, i.e. with the charitable purpose of both the applicant and City Bridge Foundation;
• is legally compliant, i.e. with Charity Commission guidance CC9; and
• can be supported without undue legal, regulatory or reputational risk

We will assess your campaigning work against the priorities and eligibility criteria for the funding round you applied to.

For further guidance, please see the Charity Commission’s Campaigning and political activity guidance for charities.
 

Yes. Under our ten-year Standing with Londoners policy (2026–36), we expect to award around £26m per year across our four justice areas: Access to Justice, Economic Justice, Racial Justice, and Climate & Environmental Justice.

We will continue to open additional programmes and funding rounds in 2027. For the latest information on upcoming opportunities, please visit our website, follow us on Linkedin and/​or sign up to our newsletter.

At the moment, we cannot say what future rounds of the Economic Justice programme will look like, as they are still being developed, but they will continue to evolve based on learning from round one and ongoing engagement with the wider sector.

All programmes, including funding rounds and eligibility criteria, are still under development. If you feel that your organisation’s work aligns with the priorities and eligibility criteria for this round of the Economic Justice programme, we recommend that you apply to this round rather than holding back to apply for future rounds and programmes.

If your application is unsuccessful at Stage One, we will notify you by email by 11 January 2027. After this date, you can request written feedback. If your application is unsuccessful at Stage Two, you can request a feedback call with a member of our funding team. Please refer to our <timeline> for information about our two-stage decision-making process.

We’ve created comprehensive resources to answer as many questions as possible before you commit to applying. For example:

• A webinar with a British Sign Language interpretation, accompanied by a list of questions and slides
• Pre-application phone calls to help you with any eligibility queries
• Detailed help with our application form via our downloadable Instructions for Applicants
• A downloadable sample application form in Word for offline editing 

If you have additional accessibility requirements, please contact funding@citybridgefoundation.org.uk or call 020 7332 3710 (open 8am-6pm, Monday to Friday).

Yes, but if you need to submit your application in a different format, need accessibility adjustments, or are having difficulty accessing our online form, please contact a member of our funding team at funding@citybridgefoundation.org.uk for advice.

For any technical issues with our Application Portal, please contact us at funding@citybridgefoundation.org.uk or call 020 7332 3710 (open 8am-6pm, Monday to Friday).

Yes, provided you commit to paying it upon receipt of our grant. If this is challenging for your organisation, please book a call with us to discuss. 

We cannot fund schools directly, and we generally do not fund work that duplicates or replaces statutory provision. However, we can consider applications from eligible organisations working with or in schools, provided the work aligns with the fund’s criteria and priorities and is consistent with our general eligibility and exclusions. See General eligibility and exclusions. 

Yes. We recognise that faith-based organisations play an important role in supporting London’s communities. We can consider applications from faith-based organisations, provided your work aligns with our fund criteria and priorities and you do not use our funding to promote or advance religion. 

Funded activity can focus on a particular community or group where relevant to the work and the need being addressed, but it must be charitable and consistent with our general eligibility and exclusions. See General eligibility and exclusions.

Yes, but only if your organisation is a Constituted Voluntary Organisation (CVO). Your organisation must still meet the eligibility criteria for this funding round, including the income threshold of £50,000 to £1.5 million. In this case, the fiscal host’s annual income may exceed £1.5 million.

To apply, the fiscal host must be the named applicant, with your organisation or group’s name in brackets, so we can carry out the necessary due diligence checks and financial assessment. The fiscal host must provide the formal accounts and financial information, hold the grant, and be responsible for meeting the grant terms.

Your organisation must provide information on the proposed work, community leadership, track record, community relationships and the intended use of funding. We will assess both the fiscal host’s capacity to manage the grant and your organisation’s ability to deliver the work.

The fiscal host should usually hold and manage the grant on your organisation’s behalf. If the fiscal host plays a more substantive role in delivering the work, we may consider this a partnership application.

A Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG) would only be eligible if it also falls within one of our eligible organisation types, such as a charitable company, meaning a company that is also a registered charity. 

Charitable aims or objects alone are not sufficient. A company limited by guarantee is not eligible simply because it operates on a not-for-profit basis, reinvests surplus, or has an asset lock.

Typically, we will want to see at least one year’s worth of audited or independently examined accounts. However, as a CIC, you can provide one year of unaudited accounts if Companies House permits you to do so.

Yes, if you are currently receiving any other grant from us, you are eligible to apply for this round. However, we may prioritise organisations we haven’t funded or have funded recently.

Yes. We accept partnership applications. One organisation must be named as the lead applicant and grant-holder. The lead organisation will be accountable to us for the grant, including delivery, reporting, compliance with the grant agreement, and any funding passed to partners.

Each organisation receiving funding must meet the eligibility criteria for this funding round, including an income below the £1.5 million cap.

Please see our downloadable <Funding Guidelines> for full eligibility criteria for partnerships.