We have exciting news from The Royal Countryside Fund for community organisations in your area. Our new, UK-wide Supporting Rural Communities grant programme will open for applications on Friday,10th January 2025. Organisations can apply for up to £25,000 by the 21st February 2025 to create tangible change in their community.
New funding is available from The Royal Countryside Fund to deliver transformative, community-led initiatives in rural communities across the UK, unlocking the huge potential for positive change in this region.
Organisations can apply for up to £25,000 over a period of 24 months to deliver activities along the themes of:
- Keeping young people in the countryside
- Powering up rural communities
- Environmental sustainability
- Building emergency resilience in rural areas
Projects must be community led and will need to demonstrate that they actively listen to, and understand, the needs of their community. We are also looking for projects which meet one or more of the key characteristics below:
- Working towards a long term vision. Is the organisation sustainable long-term with a clear goal for the organisation and their community?
- Facilitating collaboration and innovation. Can they demonstrate how they collaborate with others to deliver collective change?
- Demonstrating innovation. We want to support activities that are creating innovative and replicable solutions to the challenges facing their community.
Who can apply?
This funding is available to rural community organisations, not individuals or private businesses. To view more details, please see our website: Supporting Rural Communities – The Royal Countryside Fund
How to apply
This year we have introduced a two-stage application process. Applicants will need to send a short video and complete a simple ‘Expression of Interest’ form. These should let us know who you are, what you aim to do, why your project is needed and how it will help your community. You should also set out how the project meets our funding priorities. If we feel the EOI is a good fit with our programme, we’ll then invite applicants to send us more details in a full proposal.
Webinar
We are holding a webinar for prospective applicants on Tuesday, December 17th at 18:00. To sign up to the webinar and submit a question for our team follow the link here: https://bit.ly/4eFx5ut
Please note, the deadline to submit a video and expression of interest is midday on Friday 21st February 2025.
Please follow this link to find out more: Supporting Rural Communities – The Royal Countryside Fund
