£500 micro-grants are available to help fund waste-reducing projects across Essex.
Calling all waste-reduction enthusiasts! Essex County Council’s Love Essex team is offering £500 micro-grants to support innovative projects and ideas that reduce household waste.
Since 2019, the council has supported 157 community projects through the Love Essex Fund. The micro-grants are intended to help organisations, individuals, and schools with both new and existing projects. This year, up to £20,000 is available to support projects that encourage residents to reuse and repair items.
Last year, funding was awarded to more than 30 projects, including:
repair cafés
refill shops
textiles and toy redistribution groups
bike, furniture, and electronics repair organisations
clothes swap events
Councillor Peter Schwier, Essex County Council Cabinet Member for Environment, Waste Reduction and Recycling, said:
“I am delighted to announce that the Love Essex Fund has returned for 2025. In line with the Waste Strategy for Essex, we have committed to support activities that promote repair and sharing of pre-loved items.
This is the perfect opportunity for us to help the fantastic community projects that reduce waste and encourage reuse and repair in our area.”
To apply for a micro-grant, visit the Love Essex Fund webpage. Applicants will need to provide a brief description of the project and a breakdown of how they plan to spend the micro-grant.
Don’t miss out! Applications close on 9 February 2025.
Active Essex Foundation are excited to announce that they have been funded by Essex County Council Public Health Team to deliver a Transition Age Mental Health & Physical Activity Project over the next 3 years. A webinar to launch this work was held on Monday 2nd December 2024. Click Here to watch the webinar recording.
If you are a voluntary or community-based organisation, using or keen to start using movement, physical activity and sport to support young adults (17-25 years) with low levels of emotional wellbeing in your local area, there are funding opportunities (up to £10,000 grants) to partner with us and be involved in the delivery across the 12 Essex County Council districts. Visit our project page on Active Essex Foundation website for further information on the funding criteria and how to apply – Click Here
Closing date for applications is 31st January 2025 with a view to commence delivery from April 2025 onwards.
Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions regarding this exciting new project.
The VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme will help voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations (VCSEs) across England to deliver more efficient services for people and communities by saving money on their energy bills.
The VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme is offering independent energy assessments to help identify energy-saving opportunities in your building.
From January, the scheme will also be offering capital grants to implement measures recommended in your assessment.
Applicant organisations must be a VCSE based in England and delivering frontline services. They must be able to demonstrate that they are financially sustainable, require support around energy and are not suitable for blended finance or loan support through other schemes.
The scheme is funded as part of a package of over £100 million of support being delivered by the Government to help frontline delivery organisations with the increased cost of living.
How does it work?
Use our eligibility checker to see if you’re eligible to apply for the cost and delivery of an Independent Energy Assessment (IEA). If you’re successful, we’ll match you up with an independent energy assessor who will work with you to assess your building and help identify energy-saving opportunities.
An IEA is a comprehensive evaluation of your building’s energy usage, efficiency and potential for energy savings, conducted by a qualified and experienced independent energy assessor.
With a satisfactory IEA, and provided you meet the wider eligibility criteria, your organisation may also apply for a Capital Grant. Capital Grants of between £2,000 and £150,000 can be used to install capital energy efficiency measures, identified in your IEA, to reduce your building’s energy costs and support the delivery of your frontline services.
Check if you’re eligible for an Independent Energy Assessment or visit the Programme Guidance and Frequently Asked Questions information using the links below.
The Essex Alliance has been provided with £200,000 to administer a COVID response grants programme to support VCS organisations to continue to meet the increased demand in supporting vulnerable people in communities during the ongoing COVID situation, including those hard to reach communities.
Funding is designed to support activity that helps reduce the transmission of the virus; enable people to stay safe and isolate; and reduce barriers to vaccinations.
There is £200,000 available in the grant pot, we are offering organisations within the Alliance (who have signed up to our newsletter) a max of £5k per project. If you’re not currently a member of the Alliance, please sign up here to be able to apply for this VCS funding.
The Contain Management Outbreak Fund can be used for Public Health purposes to tackle COVID-19, funding is designed to support activity that helps reduce the transmission of the virus; enable people to stay safe and isolate; and reduce barriers to vaccinations. Whilst the specific health activities that can be funded are flexible, and should reflect local community needs in relation to suppressing the virus, activities that this funding could be used to support may include:
< Support to access vaccinations and testing for hard-to reach groups
< Additional resource to support contact tracing
< Enhanced communication and marketing e.g. towards hard to reach groups and other localised messaging
< Delivery of essentials for those in self-isolation
< Targeted interventions for specific sections of the local community and workplaces
< Harnessing capacity with local sectors e.g. voluntary, academic, commercial
< Extension/introduction of specialist support e.g. behavioural science, bespoke comms
< Additional resource for compliance with, and enforcement of, restrictions and guidance
< Targeted support for school / university outbreaks
< Community based support for those disproportionately impacted such as BAME population
< Support for engagement and analysis of regional areas to assess and learn from local initiatives
< Providing initial support, as needed, to vulnerable people
Examples of potential projects could be:
< Providing adaptations to services or developing new ways of working to ensure a reduction in transmission
of COVID19.
< Providing mental health support.
< Supporting vulnerable members of the community.
< Enabling people to stay safe and isolate when necessary.
< Reducing barriers to vaccinations, such as transport and community engagement.
Grants of up to £5,000 are available over one year, to support core costs and essential operating costs, project costs or capital items. We would be interested in projects that ensured communities stay connected, are able to self-isolate as required and provides support to those in need. New projects or those that need to be adapted or scaled-up to better respond as a direct result of the COVID 19 could be considered. Any grants awarded will need to be spent within one year.
The Essex Alliance has been provided with £200,000 to administer a COVID response grants programme to support VCS organisations to continue to meet the increased demand in supporting vulnerable people in communities during the ongoing COVID situation, including those hard to reach communities.
Funding is designed to support activity that helps reduce the transmission of the virus; enable people to stay safe and isolate; and reduce barriers to vaccinations.
There is £200,000 available in the grant pot, we are offering organisations within the Alliance (who have signed up to our newsletter) a max of £5k per project. If you’re not currently a member of the Alliance, please sign up here to be able to apply for this VCS funding.
After successfully distributing 2,000 grants to Localgiving members last year, it was our biggest ever Magic Little Grants programme, we’re incredibly excited to announce that 2022 is going to be even bigger and better than ever before! We will be awarding £500 grants to 2,650 charitable organisations on Localgiving. We are so pleased to have expanded the number of grantees this year as we know how popular these grants have proven to our charities. We would like to extend a huge thank you to the support and contributions from the players of the People’s Postcode Lottery.
Applications for Magic Little Grants 2022 will be open from Wednesday 16th March and applications will still take just ten minutes to complete!
As organizations like yours race to adapt activities in response to an increased need for your services, we wanted to share a few ways Facebook may be useful in your efforts. In this webinar you will learn: – Ways to fundraise on Facebook and Instagram – How to access Facebook and Instagram Fundraising Tools – Recommended Best Practices We look forward to having you join our session. The Facebook Social Good Team
Essex Councils for Voluntary Services (ECVS) are co-ordinating the offer of a small team of Employee Volunteers from Essex County Council with bid-writing experience to help complete funding applications for VCSE organisations in Essex which have been adversely affected by the impact of Covid-19 on their activities and income and are at risk. If you would like to be considered for this support please complete this Expression of Interest and an ECVS member will be in touch with you to discuss further. This is at present a time limited activity so we ask that you put your details forward as soon as possible to enable us to assess your requirements against the time, skills and experience of the team providing the support and schedule in as many requests as possible.
The Foyle Foundation’s Small Grants Scheme has re-opened for new applications from 1 June. It will operate until further notice under the following revised criteria for support reflecting the impact of COVID-19. The Foundation says: “We understand that charities are now operating within very different circumstances since the March 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. We are keen to be as flexible as can be in our support of small charities during this difficult and constantly changing ongoing period, while maintaining a focus on those who can demonstrate a clear (usually local) need for their services and financial viability over the twelve months from the date of their application.”
The Small Grants Scheme is designed to support charities registered and operating in the United Kingdom, especially those working at grass roots and local community level, in any field, across a wide range of activities.
Charities may be able to access local authority funding via either the small business grant or retail and hospitality grant.
The Small Business Grant provides a one-off cash grant of £10,000 to eligible businesses, to help with ongoing business costs.
The Retail and Hospitality Grant provides a cash grant of up to £25,000 per property, depending on the rateable value, if your organisation operates within the retail, hospitality or leisure sectors.
Eligibility for these varies by local authority, but the small business grant will take precedence over the retail and hospitality grant – we suggest you look into the uses of your premises to see which you are most likely to be successful for.