Open: 19th May, 2016 to 11th July, 2016 (midday)

About the initiative

Sport plays an important role in improving the lives of millions of people in the UK and across the world. In schools, communities and clubs, it brings people together to play, learn, improve health and benefit from shared experiences. Sport is vitally important in many people’s lives as participants, competitors, employees or fans. It is also, under the right circumstances, a powerful tool for helping bring about social change.

Our Sport for Change strategy runs across our UK and international funding and across our four programme areas. Within this initiative, we’re seeking proposals which use sport as a catalyst for change, helping people to do two key things:

  • Take ownership: feel part of increasingly inclusive and cohesive communities.
  • Feel empowered: to identify and solve the social issues affecting their communities.

Funding available

We expect to make between 15 and 30 grants across the UK.

We’ll want groups to think about what is not working in their community so together we can develop a solution that uses sport or physical activity to turn things around. Typical problems might be anti-social behaviour, unemployment, older people feeling isolated or a lack of community cohesion.

We’ll be looking for projects that:

  • Offer ideas that are generated within the community.
  • Involve the community throughout.
  • Demonstrate a partnership that’s really working.
  • Address a problem or social need.
  • Use sport and physical activity as an agent to make change – not just increase participation.

The work can target any age group, as long as there is a clear issue that needs addressing. It does not have to focus on young people.

In addition to this call for proposals working in the UK, we anticipate making 8-12 grants focussing on communities outside of the UK using Sport for Change. All applications for this International strand of work will be by invitation only.

Eligibility

Proposals are welcome for grants between £40,000 and £75,000 for up to two years of activity, taking place in one of the areas noted above.

We’re inviting proposals for work in several of the UK’s most deprived areas:

  • England – Knowsley, Middlesbrough, Kingston Upon Hull, Birmingham, Nottingham. Plymouth, Hastings, Great Yarmouth and Tower Hamlets.
  • Scotland – Glasgow and North Lanarkshire.
  • Northern Ireland – Belfast and Derry.
  • Wales – Blaenau Gwent and Denbighshire.

We are keen to receive applications from organisations based in the community in which they are working. The focus of the applicant organisation must be in the local community, although it may choose to work with national or regional partners. The annual turnover of applicant organisations must be between £200,000 – £1 million. We are not accepting applications from national organisations in their own right.

You should also check our grant making policies which explain our eligibility criteria for all organisations applying to Comic Relief for funding. In relation to costs the grant may cover, we will consider funding refurbishment of facilities, if this work is core to the project activities and does not exceed 30% of total budget. Where refurbishment is taking place, we will need a clear plan for how the facility will be maintained once grant funding is finished.

Key dates and process

We’ll be open for proposals from 19 May 2016 to midday 11 July 2016.

Once we receive your proposal, we’ll initially check whether your organisation and proposal is eligible for funding under this initiative and then shortlist the strongest proposals to go through for a full assessment. We’ll aim to notify all applicants of our decisions at this stage in mid-August. If your proposal is unsuccessful at this stage, we’ll be unable to provide any additional feedback due to our limited resources.

Assessments on the proposals which pass this stage will take place from late-August to early-October and will final decisions will be made by our Grants Committee and Trustees.

We aim to inform all applicants of the final decision at the start of December 2016. If your proposal is unsuccessful at this stage we’ll write you explaining the reasons why. Unfortunately, we cannot provide any additional feedback.

To find out more click here; http://www.comicrelief.com/grants

By: Sarah