The following advice has been made available by the team at Bury Council who manage funding for small community groups. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like help applying or looking for support:

Bury Council manage various different funds where priority is given to projects that are run by constituted groups of local volunteers who wish to improve the circumstances of individuals and communities.

Small Grant Fund – up to £12,000 – & Community Fund up to £250 – cross ward £750
The Bury Council Small Grants Fund and Community funding is to encourage and support grass-root community activity, small, community-based and locally controlled groups that manage themselves, encourage active participation from volunteers, have minimal cash reserves and limited access to funding support.

Organisations applying for funding should be running projects which address at least one of Bury Council’s Thematic Priorities:

· Reducing poverty and its effects
· Supporting our most vulnerable residents
· Making Bury a better place to live

Community First up to £2,500
Funding from the Office for Civil Society and administered by Community Development Foundation (CDF) has been allocated to four wards East, Moorside, Radcliffe East and Radcliffe West. Each area has an allocation of £33,910 until March 2015 with a primary purpose of providing funding support to locally agreed community projects.

The groups which apply for funding need to demonstrate match funding – principally expected to be volunteer time (can also be cash, goods and services).

Each of the four wards have established Panels whose principal role is to identify local priorities for funding and make recommendations relating to projects to be supported. Each have a panel partner, B3SDA is the panel partner for Bury East and Radcliffe West and Groundwork is the panel partner for Moorside and Radcliffe East.

‘I Will If You Will’ fund up to £750
Local and community groups can bid for cash to make Bury the place to be for women’s and girls’ sport. A total of £50,000 is available under the “I Will If You Will” project, which Bury is piloting nationally with funding from Sport England, to encourage women to become more active and take up sport.
Applicants should offer activities or events that help that change people’s behaviour and attitudes. Results will be measured by the number of women and girls who take part in at least one 30-minute exercise session a week.

Police and Crime Commissioners up to £500
Bury has been allocated £10,000 annually from the Police Property Act Fund, and voluntary groups can bid for some of this money to help them in their work. Organisations must demonstrate how the project to be funded meets the priorities in the Police Crime Plan for Greater Manchester (www.gmpcc.org.uk/plan) and the Local Township Plans in Bury (www.bury.gov.uk/townshipforums).

Community Learning Partnership up to £2,500
Voluntary and community groups are invited to apply for funding to help them develop learning opportunities in Bury over the next three years. £16,000 is available under the project which has been drawn up by the Community Learning Partnership. One of the actions is to offer small pots of funding to community and voluntary groups to help develop and/or deliver learning opportunities that widen participation and support community initiatives that engage people in learning.

More information is available from Liz Saunders at the Council Tel: 0161 253 6357
E mail: e.saunders@bury.gov.uk