Check out recent funding opportunities via the So:linked website funding page www.solinked.org.uk or subscribe to our latest newsletter for updates.
You can also find out about sources of grant information and support from a report that we undertook in early 2023. SVS report on grant funding May 2023
Key points that the local voluntary, community and social enterprise sector have made to us are as follows:
- There is more to do in terms of supporting groups to know about and access grant funding. A closed Grant Funding and Info Share Facebook group has been set up by a few proactive members of the Southampton community in partnership with Southampton Voluntary Services. Any local community-sector organisation or individual can join. (18) Southampton Grant & Info share | Facebook
- Information about funding opportunities and issues will continue to be shared via the Southampton Voluntary Services newsletter, which you can sign up to via www.southamptonvs.org.uk
- The local community sector can feel very despondent about the amount of time and money that goes into funding applications. We would like to see funders and commissioners making it easier for our sector to access funding in a non-bureaucratic, efficient way. Organisations needs to ensure that their core costs are covered and that the funding offered helps them thrive long term, without being dependent on a cap-in-hand approach.
- Funders need to be as inclusive as possible, recognising that people who want to submit for money may not have English as their first language or indeed have experience of funding applications. Funding should not be for those who do this as a profession, but for those who deliver quality local activities and services that meets the needs of local people.
- There needs to be clearer ways and more support for new groups to identify the potential impact of their proposed projects, so that new initiatives are not discouraged.
- We would like to see more working together of local organisations that run funding mailing lists, websites that share funding info, and those organisations that offer funding. People who run these funding initiatives are encouraged to join the Southampton Grant funding Facebook group and attend meetings of the funding group.
- There should be transparency in the ways that funding decisions are made.
We will also implement a series of other recommendations following a Feb 2023 meeting of members of the local community sector to improve shared learning and mutual support around grant funding as set out in the report. To see the report or find out more about progress, contact SVS Sam or Rebecca via emails here SVS Team – Southampton Voluntary Services (southamptonvs.org.uk) or call 023 8022 8291.