East of England Co-op Community Cares Fund

The East of England Co-op Community Cares Fund will award grants of between £1,000 and £5,000 to support the work of voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations (VCSE), charities and parish councils looking to create or adapt services or activities to address local needs in Norfolk, in locations where the East of England Co-op trades.

You must be based within 5 kilometres of an East of England Co-op store (food, travel, or funeral), where beneficiaries will be aware of their local presence.

Criteria:

The theme for this Fund is ‘Community Cohesion and Integration’. Applicants must demonstrate that their projects will support people to play an active part in their local community to reduce barriers and inequalities and improve social contact and experiences.

Applications must address at least one or more of these key areas:

Improved access to social activities for all
Reduction in feelings of isolation and improved wellbeing
Supported people into education or employment
Provided information, advice or guidance to maximise income
Evidence of partnership working or alliance formation

Things to consider:

You must be based within 5 kilometres of an East of England Co-op food store, travel branch or funeral branch. Find out where your nearest store is by clicking here to go to their store locator. Select the option for ‘All branches’.
The funder will only consider those applications where they are funding 30% or more of the total project cost.
Unfortunately, you are not eligible to apply if you have received a grant from this Fund from November 2023 onwards.
The total funding pot available is £22,000, meaning only 5-6 groups are likely to be supported.
Decisions are made by a panel made up of members of staff from East of England Co-op. Outcomes are expected in February 2025.

Learnings from the last funding round:

In the last round of funding, applications quadrupled the amount of funding available.
NCF found that the decision-makers deemed capital projects less of a priority where the delivery of the organisation’s day to day services were not dependent on it.
Similarly, food-related projects were only supported where there was also wider community activity.
One of the questions in the application form is around volunteer engagement. NCF understands that this information is considered by the East of England Co-op in their decision-making.

Call for Applications

Closed

Maximum Grant

£1,000 – £5,000

Deadline

25 November 2024 – 12:00pm

Who can apply?

Charity, Faith organisation, Parish/Town Council, Social Enterprise/CIC, and Voluntary/Community Group

Eligible Area

5 kilometre radius of an East of England Co-op store

Find Out More & Apply