Community Chest

We are happy to announce that Round 3 of the Community Chest Scheme 2018 is now open. Applications are welcome for the following Local Area Council areas: Ashington & Blyth, Castle Morpeth, Cramlington, Bedlington & Seaton Valley, and Tynedale. Applications that benefit the whole County are also welcome. Deadline for receipt is 5pm Friday 11th January.

Please note that funds for North Northumberland are now fully allocated for this year.

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. In addition, a new small grant scheme, Help For You, has been included specifically to help young people under 18 to achieve an ambition (see below).

The fund 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 2016-17

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 3	11th January 2019	15th February 2019

If your project seeks to benefit the County as a whole, then it may be considered as a Countywide project, for which £60,000 per annum is set aside. Such projects are considered by a separate panel of Area Chairs that meets more regularly. Although the maximum grant remains 75% of the actual costs, the upper limit will not normally exceed £10,000.  

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. 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.

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)

For further information, please contact: 

Community Regeneration Team
Ecomony and Inclusion Policy Team
Planning and Economy
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
NE61 2EF
communitychest@northumberland.gov.uk

communitychest@northumberland.gov.uk