COOKIE STATUS:

Infrastructure funding: capacity building and representation

Funding theme: Building a robust civil society

We want to fund organisations and initiatives delivering quality capacity-building services and/​or voice, representation and advocacy support to the voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors.

We believe that a thriving, vibrant, vocal, and collaborative civil society is essential for London to flourish and underpins our mission to reduce inequality and grow stronger, more resilient and thriving communities.

To achieve this, we also believe the sector needs access to high-quality support that helps sustainability and provides civil society with voice and representation.

Grant details

  • Area: Greater London
  • Open to: New and previous applicants
  • Deadline: Applications accepted on a rolling basis
  • Funding length: Up to five years
  • Funding size: There is no minimum or maximum limit to how much we will give, however we never give revenue funding exceeding 50% of the applicants turnover/​income in any one year
  • Average award: Based on grants made to date, we have awarded between £24,000 and £500,000, the average award size has been £184,000*

*These figures are illustrative and we will award more or less than these amounts depending on the applications we receive. You can find out more about our approach to funding here.

What we fund

Funding is available to second-tier and infrastructure organisations, and for infrastructure initiatives and services setting out to provide high-quality support to wider networks of London frontline voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations that will help them in the delivery of their work.

We are keen to fund work that sets out to increase the sector’s:

  • sustainability: including adaptability, resilience, effectiveness and collaboration

  • voice and representation: especially where it increases users’ influence on decision-making

  • involvement of communities

  • impact: in terms of improved outcomes and better access to community facilities and services for Londoners

We are particularly keen to support organisations working with and/​or led by groups that have historically faced barriers in terms of receiving an equitable share of the funding, resources, and other support available.

We can fund:

  • voice, representation and advocacy work that an organisation provides on behalf of their membership and / or a network

  • activity to improve members’ and /​or a network’s capacity in or approaches towards a specific area. This may include, but is not restricted to, one or more of the below:
    • governance

    • fundraising

    • marketing, media, communications

    • digital capacity building

    • business planning, operational issues, or service delivery

    • monitoring, evaluation and impact management

    • diversity, equity and inclusion

    • climate change

    • managing people (including paid staff and volunteers), resources (financial and non-financial) and/​or buildings

    • networks, networking, partnerships, collaboration, peer-to-peer support

    • co-production

This is not an exhaustive list, you can apply to us for funding for other activities that will support the sector.

How to apply

Before beginning your application, please ensure you have thoroughly read steps one and two to check that our funding is a good fit for you. Please note, we only fund organisations that meet our eligibility criteria.

Application steps:

  1. Find out what’s involved in the application process
  2. Check your eligibility
  3. Start your application

If you are a previous grant holder, or an unsuccessful applicant, please read our reapplication criteria before submitting a new application.