Community funding

Rural areas

Your organisations must be in a rural area to apply. To check, open the magic map and select "administrative geographies", "other administrative boundaries", then "Rural England Prosperity Fund". 

Applicants 

You will be eligible to apply if your a Parish council, charity, community or voluntary group, club or individual. You can also apply If you are a Friends of group, School PTA, or health charity and can evidence programmes or projects that benefit the wider community and support the strategic aims, objectives, and priorities of the council. 

You can not apply if your a profit organisation or a religious body. 

Criteria

You can apply for your organisation to get a capital grant of up to £15,000 if you can demonstrate that funding will be used to support the:  

• creation and improvements to local rural green spaces
• existing cultural, historic and heritage institutions
• active travel enhancements e.g. community transport

You can only apply for capital funding and your organisation must:

• demonstrate value for money for the investment of public funds - environmental, social and economic
• identify and quantify beneficiaries and impact of investment
• provide an element of match funding, and that grant funding is necessary to enable the project to proceed
• consider on-going sustainability e.g. associated maintenance, repairs etc.

Exclusions

Some exclusions will apply if: 

• your organisation holds more than 6 months unrestricted operating costs within their assets, unless a good reason can be demonstrated
• the activities are discriminatory, political, or are classed as religious conversion
• there is statutory funding provision available
• costs can be claimed back from elsewhere e.g. VAT
• costs are not auditable e.g. cash payments unsupported by an approved financial system
• costs are towards banking charges or repayment of debt
• payments made to individual members of the applicant group or organisation have a personal financial interest
• the programmes or activities are considered the core activity of national or regional government, government departments or arms-length body, such as health or education
• works to facilities are or should be subject to an insurance claim and projects already funded by the council
• any projects that have already received DEFRA funding e.g. Platinum Jubilee Village Hall Improvement Grant Fund

The funding cannot be used for: 

• retrospective costs e.g. activities completed, or costs incurred before the agreement of funding
• gifts and prizes
• alcohol
• employee costs, including salaries
• political lobbying
• training or facilitation costs

Refer to community funding policy and community funding privacy notice for further information.

You must read the following terms and conditions before applying. 

• funding awards are paid upon receipt of a signed grant agreement, annex and accompanying documentation
• your organisation will need to comply in accordance with the provisions of and principles of the Data Protection Act 2018
• the grant is not transferable between projects or organisations
• a grant is awarded on the basis of information provided in the application, should this information be found to be misleading, or the supported project is cancelled, the council will be entitled to be repaid the grant monies
• applications must be for a non-profit making purpose
• It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure they have all relevant consents and permissions in place i.e. planning permission, DBS checks, and licenses
• a grant award does not give permission to proceed with any work without the correct statutory authorisation
• successful grants awarded must be spent within 12 months of the award and must comply to the grant arrangements
• successful grants awarded must comply with appropriate monitoring systems, including a final report and any relevant documentation such as receipts
• the final date for all spend is the 31 March 2025, all projects must be completed by this date - there are no exceptions