Grants of between £15,000 and £60,000 over 3 years are available to not-for-profit organisations in England, including registered charities, unincorporated associations and Community Interest Companies, that are delivering frontline services addressing the priority basic needs of women who are most vulnerable to poverty due to the cost-of-living crisis. Applying organisations must be based in England and have an annual turnover of under £1 million.
The Smallwood Trust's Women’s Urgent Support Fund is supported by over £5.4 million of funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, to respond to the cost-of-living crisis. Thanks to National Lottery players, £5.43 million will be awarded in grants to c.100 small, local community organisations led by and serving women, enabling 20,000 women to access vital specialist support services over five years.
The Women’s Urgent Support Fund Round 2 is a continuation of Round 1 and will support organisations providing frontline services for women to manage the impact of the cost-of-living crisis.
Round 2 of the Fund will provide funding over 3 years for organisations delivering frontline services with an income of £1,000,000 or less that are led by, for and/or supporting women enabling them to respond to the spike in demand of priority basic needs from women who are most at risk of poverty, because of the cost-of-living-crisis. Round 2 will award around £2.2 million to about 35 organisations.
The core objectives of the fund are:
- Frontline organisations led by and/or supporting women can respond to an identified increase in demand, brought on by the cost-of-living crisis.
- Frontline organisations can meet the basic priority needs of women at most risk of poverty, because of the cost-of-living crisis, and
- Frontline organisations led by and/or supporting women will be strengthened during the cost-of-living crisis.
The Fund will prioritise organisations and/or services supporting the following groups:
- Women experiencing racial inequality.
- Disabled women.
- Women with no recourse to public funds.
- Women that are the sole parent to children under 18 years, and/or
- LGBTQ+ communities experiencing financial insecurity.
Please note that the Trust aims to commit at least 50% of grants to projects that support women experiencing racial inequality and/or disabled women.
Funding in Round 2 is for grants between £15,000 and £60,000 to be phased over 3 years. There is no minimum application amount. Funds must be spent by November/December 2027.
Based on the Trust’s experience of awarding funding in Round 1, Round 2 is expected to be highly competitive. During Round 1, 475 applications were received and 63 organisations (13% or all applications received) were awarded a grant.
Round 2 has a two-stage application process:
- Stage 1: Complete an online Expression of Interest Form.
- Stage 2: the Smallwood Trust will invite c.100 organisations to submit a full application.
The Expression of Interest Form is designed to be a simple first stage in which applicants are asked to provide some information about their organisation, the women they with, and what they would like to do with the funding.
Please note that you cannot save the online form and come back to it later. The Trust recommends that applicants have their final answers ready before they complete the Expression of Interest form.
Expression of Interest forms must be submitted by 5pm on 21 June 2024.
The Trust will be hosting a number of ‘How to Apply’ webinars to support applicants to understand whether this is the right opportunity for them, and answer any questions that have not been covered in the guidance notes. All webinars will have British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation.
The webinars will take place on the following dates.
Wednesday 22 May 2024 from 1pm - 2pm. Follow this link to register.
Thursday 13 June 2024 from 11am - 12pm. Follow this link to register.
Further information, guidance and details about how to apply is available on the Smallwood Trust website.
Completed applications and questions should be submitted to the Programme Manager, Rosie Learmonth, at grants@smallwoodtrust.org.uk