The CrossCountry Customer & Communities Improvement Fund (CCIF) is our community grant fund, specifically designed to support community projects that deliver tangible social and environmental benefits.
This will be the final opportunity to secure grant funding, with our winter application window now open between Monday 11 November 2024 and Friday 6 December 2024.
CCIF allows communities and stakeholders across the CrossCountry network to identify, develop local projects and schemes that can make a real difference to the communities we serve.
You can bid for funding for any project that addresses an environmental or social need within any community across the length and breadth of the CrossCountry network.
We are looking to award grant funding across a wide range of schemes and activities – anything from biodiversity projects to apprenticeship schemes and from diversity and community outreach to projects removing barriers to rail travel.
An integral aspect of CrossCountry’s Customer and Communities Investment Fund is that it is designed to support schemes that have a tangible community benefit, address an area of social need, and are not for commercial gain. A strong application for a CCIF grant should:
- Show clear evidence of how the project will address an area of community or social need and show a clear link to the CrossCountry network, in line with our Customer and Stakeholder Engagement Strategy.
- Demonstrate a clear level of community engagement, offering clear evidence of meeting an issue identified by a local community.
- Set out clear plans for delivering the project, with accurate costs, timescales, how the project will be managed and where appropriate assurances about any consents or permissions needed from other organisations.
Match funding is an important part of many projects, and we welcome applicants who are able to utilise other funding from other sources, especially where funding has already been confirmed. However, we are aware that not all schemes are able to generate funding from other organisations, and this should not deter bidders from submitting schemes that have a clear social need and have demonstrated a high level of community engagement.
You can apply using an easy to complete application web form, which will be available when the applications window will be open from Monday 11 November 2024 and Friday 6 December 2024.
