Community Chest

We are happy to announce that the Community Chest Scheme for 2020-21 is now open for applications.

The aim of the Community Chest Scheme is to support community groups and organisations to deliver activities which contribute to achieving the Council’s ambition for Northumberland. This includes Help For You which aims to help young people under 18 to achieve an ambition (see below). For the next two years we continue to run an Event Fund to provide some transitional support to assist local groups, clubs, charities and local councils, to cover additional costs arising from changes in the way the County Council provides support for local events (see below).

The Community Chest Scheme will support one-off initiatives that are:

• seen as valuable to the area
• are not able to secure mainstream funding from the council or other sources

They do this by giving one-off grants of up to £5,000, but not exceeding 75% of the actual costs, i.e. you will need to find at least 25% from your own or other sources.

You are advised to read the guidelines carefully before applying. If you would like some ideas about the kinds of projects that have been successful, please see the list of successful projects for 2016-17. 

• Successful projects in 2017/18

To help the council decide between different applications, there are higher and lower priorities for the scheme.

Higher priority will be given to:

• projects submitted by small community groups, defined as having an income of less than £10,000 per year and no paid staff
• initiatives that will help community groups to become sustainable in the longer term
• groups who have not received a grant from the community chest in the past

Lower priority will be given to groups who have received a community chest grant in the past two years and those that apply for projects similar to previous years.

If your group or organisation does not meet the priorities, then an application can still be made but is less likely to be successful.
 

	Deadline	Panel Meeting by
Round 1	Friday 5th June 2020	Friday 17th July 2020
Round 2	Friday 16th October 2020	Friday 27th November 2020
Round 3	Friday 29th January 2020	Friday 26th February 2020

If your project seeks to benefit the County as a whole, then it may be considered as a Countywide project, for which £30,000 per annum is set aside. Such projects are considered by a separate panel of Area Chairs that meets more regularly (12th May, 28th July, 29th Sept, 24th Nov, 26th Jan). Although the maximum grant remains 75% of the actual costs, the upper limit will not normally exceed £10,000. Please indicate by cover note if you specifically wish to apply as a Countywide project. Applications will be put to the next available meeting of the Area Chairs.

If you would like to apply to the fund, please click on the form and guidelines links below.  Some users may experience formating issues with the Word version, in which case plase check the pdf version to make sure that all of the sections are correct. Once your project is finished you will be required to submit a completion form and submit copies of receipts. You can also request a link to a bespoke google docs application form via the email address below.

NB If you submit paper documents, please do not use staples. All documents are scanned and the paper copies are then shredded.

Application form 

• Complete your application online (Google form)
• Application form (Word Docx format)
• Application form (PDF format)

Guidance and conditions

• Guidance and conditions (Word Docx format)
• Guidance and conditions (PDF format)

Sample completed application

• Sample (PDF format)

Completion form

• Completion form (Word Docx format)
• Completion form (PDF format)
• Complete your form online

Help For You
 

• Application form (PDF format)
• Application form (Word Docx format)
• Guidance (PDF format)
• Conditions (PDF format)

Event Fund

The County Council has to find £36m revenue budget savings over the 3 year period 2019/20 to 2021/22. The Council has therefore sought to identify savings from discretionary areas of service provision in order to safeguard the delivery of vital public services. One such area of discretionary spending relates to the provision of traffic management and other services such as refuse collection, litter picking, etc which have previously been provided free of charge by the Council for a wide range of events held in the county.

As part of the Council’s revenue budget savings proposals it has been agreed that from 2019 the Council will seek to recover the costs it incurs from the provision of support services requested by event organisers. This will apply to all events with the exception of Remembrance Day Parades and Armed Forces Parades, which will continue to receive support free of charge.  By seeking to recover these costs the Council is able to safeguard the provision of other key front-line services that ensure the county remains an attractive place to live, work in or visit.

The Council values the contribution that cultural, sporting, community and other events make to the quality of life and economy of the county and wants to continue to assist event organisers to adjust to the changes in support provision. The Council is therefore extending its ‘Event Fund’ to provide some transitional financial support to assist local groups, clubs, charities and local councils to cover additional costs arising from changes in the way the County Council provides support for local events. For those events taking place from 1st April 2019, the Council will no longer provide free support services to event organisers for services such as traffic management. The provision of any support services will now incur a charge payable by event organisers. The Event Fund will run from April 2020 until March 2022. 

The Event Fund for 2020/21 and 2021/22 may provide grants of up to 50% of the charges from the Council, subject to a maximum grant of £2,500.00.

Applications for grants from the Fund must be made on the form below and must be submitted by the deadline for the Round.
 

	Deadline	Panel meeting by
Round 1	Friday 3rd April 2020	Tuesday 14th April 2020
Round 2	Friday 5th June 2020	Tuesday 16th June 2020
Round 3	Friday 18th September 2020	Tuesday 29th September 2020

All applications are considered in chronological order of receipt date. Awards are made on a first come, first served basis. Once the budget is fully allocated the fund will close. 

Please read the guidance before applying.

• Application form (Word Version)
• Application form (PDF Version)
• Guidance and conditions (PDF Version)
• Appendix 1 (PDF Version)

For further information, please contact: 

Community Regeneration Team
Ecomony and Regeneration Service
Place Directorate
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
NE61 2EF
communitychest@northumberland.gov.uk

communitychest@northumberland.gov.uk