£5,000 - £10,000 revenue community grant

We invest in our communities every day, by maintaining homes, building new homes, supporting diverse customers and by funding various activities and projects.

This grant is now closed for applications. In the meantime, please read the grant information and contact us if you would like to discuss a future application.

We are giving organisations the opportunity to apply for grant funding between £5,000 – £10,000 to support community investment programmes and to deliver innovative projects that put our customers on a pathway to improving their lives. While open to projects supporting all of the priorities listed below, we’d be particularly interested to hear from projects that help to tackle the issues around the cost of living crisis.

our key themes

We welcome applications for projects that meet one of our key themes:

  • Health and wellbeing: improving mental and physical health as well as building the confidence of individuals
  • Employability and training: including volunteering and other upskilling activities
  • Increasing household income: activities including debt and benefit advice, feeding families and employing people
  • A greener, fairer future: by reducing, reusing and recycling
  • Tackling inequalities as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.

Projects must be for revenue costs and a minimum of 30% of the beneficiaries of your project will need to be believe housing tenants from areas identified to satisfy the funding criteria. Please scroll down to view our areas.

In each community, the key themes may need to be addressed in different ways. We will give priority to those projects and activities which we believe will best achieve our key themes with special consideration being given to those which support the development of sustainable communities and new projects and activities with limited resources.

All projects must be deliverable within and adhere to current coronavirus (COVID-19) government guidelines.

There is one open call for the Community Investment Revenue Grant per year and it is likely to be oversubscribed, so please consider all the criteria carefully before applying. It is important that your application demonstrates a Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely (SMART) approach and contains a clear and concise account of your proposal. We have included prompts and examples in the application form to assist you.

If you would like to discuss your project idea before submitting your application, we would welcome the opportunity to talk to you about your project idea. You can contact the Community Investment Team by email: communitygrant@believehousing.co.uk or call us on 0300 1311 999.

 

locations

All projects must be deliverable in one of our patch areas, these are central Durham, east Durham and west Durham. Please see the list below for a breakdown.

The funding will be split equally across the areas, we ask when completing the application form that you select which area your project will cover.

Some potential projects may have delivery outcomes that overlap in the delivery areas, which may be acceptable, but please discuss this with the Community Investment Team prior to submitting your application. Groups can apply for multiple projects in more than one area.

Bearpark Belmont Bowburn Brandon
Brasside Cassop Carrville Claypath
Coxhoe Browney Crossgate Croxdale
Elvet Esh Winning Framwellgate Moor Gilesgate
Gilesgate Moor High Pittington Kelloe Langley Moor
Littletown Ludworth Meadowfield Merryoaks
Neville’s Cross New Brancepeth Newton Hall Pity Me
Quarrington Hill Shadforth Sherburn Village Sherburn Hill
Sherburn Road Sherburn Road Estate Ushaw Moor West Rainton
Witton Gilbert

 

Blackhall Colliery Blackhall Rocks Hesleden Acre Rigg
Chapel Hill Denehouse Eden Hill Howletch
Passfield Sunny Blunts Horden Easington Colliery
Easington Village Shotton Colliery South Hetton Haswell
Haswell Plough Hawthorn Wheatley Hill Thornley
Wingate Water Avens Village Station Town Deaf Hill
Trimdon Colliery Trimdon Village Byron Denehouse
Deneside Eastlea Harbour Milldale
Northlea Parkside Princess Road Seaton
Westlea Dawdon Murton Dalton-le-Dale
Hutton Henry Castle Eden Hetton-le-Hole Chilton Moor
Newbottle Ryhope

 

Auckland Park Billy Row Bishop Auckland Chilton
Coundon Coundon Grange Crook Eldon Lane
Escomb Fir Tree Frosterley Howden-le-Wear
Hunwick Leeholme Middlestone Moor Oakenshaw
Stanhope Sunnybrow Tindale Crescent Tow Law
Wearhead West Auckland Westgate Willington
Witton-Le-Wear Wolsingham

 

more about the grant

The Community Revenue Grant can be used to help and support our communities, this can include:

  • Set up of classes, sessions, activities, and events for the community
  • Buying equipment for a community-based activity that does not qualify as capital
  • On costs of the project for example, staff time, sessional workers, room hire, equipment and resources required to deliver the project
  • Providing refreshments, snacks, and meals as part of an activity
  • Marketing and promotion to increase participation in activities
  • Travel costs which are integral to an activity

We welcome applications from:

  • Registered and exempt charities
  • Community groups
  • Schools
  • Social enterprises
  • Voluntary groups
  • Community Interest Companies
  • Town, Parish or Community Councils
  • Faith groups/venues

Unfortunately, we are unable to accept applications from:

  • Individuals
  • Party political groups
  • Private companies or ‘for-profit’ organisations
  • Those whose objectives and ethos do not meet believe housing’s charitable objectives.

To help you prepare to make a large grant application please consider some of the following questions:

  • What are you wanting to do, where and when will it happen and who will take part?
  • How do you know there is a need for your project? Do you already have a waiting list of people or do you have more demand for your service? Have you found a gap in services for the people you support? Have people come to you asking for this support? Do you work with other organisations who will direct people towards your activity? How do you know people will access your project?
  • How will you ensure at least 30% of your beneficiaries are believe customers?
  • What are your project milestones? These are the key stages in your project and could be planning, marketing and publicity, purchase of resources, delivery of events, recruitment of volunteers etc.
  • What are your targets? How many people will benefit from your activities? Targets should be specific and outline how often an activity takes place – for example, we will deliver weekly craft activities over 40 weeks, 25 people will attend overall with an expected average weekly attendance of 10-12 people.
  • What are the outcomes of your project? These are the difference your project will make in the long term. Do your outcomes reflect our priority themes?
  • What are your project costs? These should be detailed and give us an idea of how you have calculated these costs. For example, staff costs should show the hourly rate for the member of staff and the number of hours they will be working.
  • What is the long-term impact of your project? If it is to continue beyond our funding period, how will this happen?
  • How could believe staff volunteers support your project?

To be eligible for the Community Revenue Grant it is expected that your project would last 6 to 12 months. Priority will be given to projects that can demonstrate sustainability beyond the funding period.

Projects need to start within a month of receiving the first payment instalment.

Organisations can apply for grants of between £5,000 – £10,000 for projects to start delivery in 2022/23.

If an organisation has been successful in securing the Community Revenue Grant, they can apply for the same project for one more consecutive year, up to a total of two years funding.

If an organisation is successful in securing funding for two years, they can apply again the following year, but this must be for a different project.

Please note that the funding is very limited and there are no guarantees to an organisation of continuous or multiple funding. Funding is intended to support projects that last between 6 – 12 months that aim to become sustainable.

Please speak to a member of the Community Investment Team if you are unsure about your eligibility.

We are unable to accept applications for the Community Revenue Grant to support:

  • Items that are purchased on behalf of another organisation
  • Applications to develop the financial reserves of the organisation
  • Ongoing running costs of an organisation
  • Religious, party political or lobbying activities (non-religious and multi-faith activities may be funded)
  • Loans or debt repayments
  • Projects and activities for personal profit
  • Capital costs (e.g. a new roof)
  • Individuals requesting funding.

Once you have submitted your application, we will contact you to acknowledge receipt of this with five working days.

Your application will then be reviewed and be part of a shortlisting process, we may contact you for additional information at this stage. If your application is shortlisted, you will be informed, and this will then go to the grant panel for decision. A grant panel will be made up of the director of corporate strategy & assurance , engagement and corporate social responsibility manager and community investment performance team leader.

Once a decision has been made, we will then contact you to advise you of the outcome.

We aim to complete the decision process within seven weeks of the closing date so please bear this timescale in mind when developing your project milestone dates.

If your grant application is unsuccessful, we will provide you with feedback on request. We can also signpost you to other sources of funding from believe housing and alternative grant providers on request.

If your application is successful, we will contact you to agree the payment schedule and reporting dates which will be followed up with an agreement letter. The agreement letter is a contractual agreement between your organisation and believe housing for the project delivery.

We will also discuss with you the details of publicity and quarterly reporting requirements, these include:

  • Evidence that the purpose for which the grant was awarded was achieved including a written update detailing progress against targets, milestones and outcomes. It should also include case studies and photos where possible.
  • Records of attendance
  • Data from participant surveys (the details of the survey will be agreed at your start-up meeting)
  • A detailed statement of expenditure including receipts and/or evidence of spend for example invoices or staff wages claim form.

All grant funding will be paid via BACS in instalments.

If believe housing agree to award a grant to help fund your project or activity, then you will be required to agree to terms and conditions.

To read the full terms and conditions, please click here.

get in touch

If you would like to discuss your project idea before submitting your application, please get in touch below to speak to our Community Investment Team.

email call now

Related content

£500 community grant
£1,000 community grant
£10,000 – £20,000 capital community grant
Employability and Learning
£500 community grant
£1,000 community grant
£10,000 – £20,000 capital community grant
Employability and Learning

apply now

If you have any issues or need any support applying for the grant, please get in touch with the team at communitygrant@believehousing.co.uk and they will be able to send you an electronic copy of the application form.

Confirm your eligibility for this grant

Are you applying for up to £10,000?(Required)
(Required)
Does your project benefit one or more of the areas believe housing operate in?(Required)
(Required)
Can you provide us with two named contacts for your project?(Required)
(Required)
Do you have a bank account with two unrelated signatories?(Required)
(Required)
Does your project meet all the funding criteria and requirements?(Required)
(Required)
Have you read the terms and conditions and can you agree to these if your funding application is successful?(Required)
(Required)

your organisation

project contacts

please provide two named contacts for your project

Main Contact

Secondary Contact

about your project

DD slash MM slash YYYY
DD slash MM slash YYYY
Which patch of County Durham does your project cover?
Central Durham
East Durham
South-West Durham

about your organisation

project costing

Please provide a breakdown and description of all the project costs below.
  • For items such as delivery of sessions please indicate the staffing cost per hour or per session.
  • If providing items such as resource packs/food packages, please indicate the number being provided. Please give as much detail as possible.

Item or activity

Total cost (£)

Amount requested from believe housing (£)

Match funding(if applicable) (£)

please demonstrate how you worked out your costs

project overview

Tell us how you developed your idea and why you are proposing this project? (150 words)
  • Please provide evidence of how you know there is a need for your project: for example, have you identified a gap in provision experienced by your community, has there been an increase in demand for a service or have people shown an interest in the idea already?
How do you know people will access your project? (150 words)
  • Please demonstrate how you have engaged with your target beneficiaries or partners who may refer people to your project. What did they say and how has this been considered in your project development?
To be funded by believe a minimum of 30% of beneficiaries must be believe housing tenants. How will you ensure your project will meet this requirement? (100 words)
  • Please note believe housing cannot supply information on the locations of individual tenants but can provide street names for our properties.
If your project involves partnership working, please provide details of the organisations you will be working with and their role.
What positive action will you take to ensure that a diverse range of people can access the project?

project milestones

What are your project milestones?
  • To allow us to track the progress of your project, please tell us about the milestones. A milestone is a specific point in time within a project lifecycle used to measure the progress of a project toward its ultimate goal. We need you to tell us about the key tasks and activities during the project and at which stage they will be completed. Examples of milestones include planning, marketing and publicity, recruitment of staff/volunteers purchase of items, installation of items, events planned, delivery of key stages in project.

project targets

What are your targets?
  • Targets are specific aims of the project e.g. delivery of activities, recruitment of volunteers working on the project or physical improvements. Any targets for the project should be quantifiable, realistic and achievable and be specific to your project outcomes. A minimum of 30% of beneficiaries need to be believe housing tenants to satisfy the criteria.
If your project will deliver regular activities, please state how many and over what period of time.

What is the target?

Example: We will deliver 48 weekly 2-hour activity sessions for older people over the course of 12 months

How many people will directly benefit?

Example: 100 people will attend over the period with an average of 20 per week

How many tenants will directly benefit?

Example: 40 believe tenants overall, with approximately 6 per week

How did you arrived at this figure?

Example: We currently have 100 older people registered with us and know that at least 40 of these are tenants

project outcomes

What are the outcomes of your project?
  • Outcomes are the longer-term differences and changes that result from the project rather than the activities that you will deliver. They should describe who will benefit, how it will benefit them and what the change will be at the end of the project.

sustainability

What is the long term impact of your project?

    project priorities

    Please explain how your project will meet one or more of our priorities:

    volunteering

    risk assessment

  • Please provide details on potential risks to the project and actions in place to avoid these risks.
    • Reputational damage
  • Reputational risk refers to the potential for negative publicity, public perception, or uncontrollable events to have an adverse impact on a company's reputation.
    • Compliance
  • Regulatory compliance is an organisation's adherence to laws, regulations, guidelines and specifications relevant to its business processes for example Health and Safety.
    • Operational issues
  • Operational risk is the prospect of loss resulting from inadequate or failed procedures, systems or policies, employee errors, system failures, fraud, or other criminal activity. Any event that disrupts business processes.
    • Financial misuse
  • Financial misuse refers to finances being spent on anything other than it was intended for without prior approval, groups going ‘under’ and close with a series of debtors in place, unable to clawback cash, loss of resources or additional income, higher set-up or operational costs than originally calculated, appropriate financial monitoring not in place, risk of mismanagement of funds, risk of fraud.
    • Coronavirus working safely
  • How will the project operate safely in relation to Covid-19?

    • declaration

    Does anyone involved with your group work for believe housing or are you or any member of your group related to any member of staff, Board or Committee member of believe housing?(Required)
    By submitting this application you are confirming that:

    • I have read and understood the guidance notes
    • The information provided is to the best of my knowledge, true and accurate
    • If my application is successful, the grant awarded will only be used for the purposes stated in this form
    • I agree to keep a record of all financial transactions relating to the grant awarded and will forward receipts/invoices as required
    • I agree to complete the believe housing community grant evaluation form following the project.

    Groups with successful grant applications will be required to consent to any publicity and marketing that believe housing may require. This may include, but is not limited to, press and online activities of both funds being awarded and the outcomes of approved projects. Should you carry out future promotion of the outcomes of your grant application, you must reference believe housing (using relevant brand guidelines and logo(s) where required), with approval from believe housing's Marketing and Communications team.

    Consent(Required)
    (Required)
    MM slash DD slash YYYY

    data protection

    believe housing is a data controller for the purposes of the current UK Data Protection Legislation and we seek to take care of the personal information you provide and deal with it in accordance with the Act. Your personal information will only be used by us so we can consider and process your application and any funding awarded. It will not be shared with other organisations unless we are required by law to do so. To find out how we process your personal information please read our privacy notice: https://demo.believehousing.co.uk/company-information/privacy-notice/
    We may wish to share your application details with internal believe housing services such as universal credit, tenancy sustainment and safer neighbourhoods etc. We would like to do this to support your application. Do you give us permission to share your details?(Required)

    Please be advised that if you do give us permission, you can withdraw this consent at any time by contacting us.

    MM slash DD slash YYYY

    consent

    I have read an understood the following:
    Consent(Required)
    (Required)
    Consent(Required)
    (Required)
    Consent(Required)
    (Required)
    This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

    Community Funding

    Our believe housing community grant scheme supports projects that make a real difference to people’s lives and wellbeing.

    Find out more

    Your Community

    We are passionate about providing homes in safe and welcoming communities.

    Find out more

    About Us

    We are an innovative, multi-award-winning, not-for-profit housing association. It is investing heavily to deliver life without barriers in homes and communities.

    Find out more