Over 30 charities, funders and philanthropists applied for a share of the government’s Community Match Challenge, with bids totalling £171m.
The 19 successful bids were announced on Saturday, and the total amount handed out was £82.41m. The remaining £2.59m will still be spent on helping the charities respond to the crisis, but the government has not said how.
The aim of the fund was to incentivise funders to release additional money for charities by promising to double the total amount available for grantees with match funding from the government.
Funders now have until the end of March next year to allocate the government share of the funding. Many funders are then planning to use their own funds, which were committed to secure the government money, to support charities from April 2021 onwards.
Meanwhile, funders have set out how they expect to use the money they have been awarded. None have yet opened to applications from charities, but some are expecting to do so in the coming weeks, while others expect to distribute funding through existing networks.
Charities Aid Foundation: £40m fund for deprived areas and smaller charities
The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) and the Covid-19 Support Fund, established by the insurance and long-term savings industry, received the largest tranche of funding, £20m.
The partnership said funding will be directed at people living in deprived areas, organisations supporting BAME communities and people with disabilities through hundreds of unrestricted grants to charitable organisations. The first tranche of payments will be made before the end of March 2021.
CAF will invite charities across England to apply for funds that can either be spent on everyday expenses to keep their doors open or that can go towards specific programmes that they plan to deliver in the coming months.
A second stage will focus to helping smaller charities with the resources they need to be best able to adapt and withstand any future economic shocks, recover from the pandemic and strengthen their leadership position in their respective communities.
Steve Morgan Foundation: £20m fund for charities in North West England
The Steve Morgan Foundation has been awarded £10m from the fund and plans to fund around 100 smaller charities, defined as those with incomes under £5m, in North West England.
Secondly, it will support four medium-sized charities addressing national issues, which have been hit by the pandemic. These are Maggie’s, JDRF, Onside Youth Zones and The Reader.
Steve Morgan, the founder of housebuilder Redrow and founder and chair of the foundation, said: “I’m honoured that the work of the Steve Morgan Foundation has been recognised by the government with this award of £10m and, by match-funding it, we have £20m to get out to those charities in the most need.”
Early in the pandemic Morgan announced that his foundation would make available up to £1m a week for a 12-week period, in order to help charities navigate the crisis. So far it has distributed over £6m since the crisis began.
In a personal capacity, Morgan has also raised concerns about government policy during the pandemic.
In the spring he was one of a six major Conservative supporters who told the Times they were concerned about the impacts of a prolonged lockdown. A company that he is a board member of has donated over £1m to the Conservative Party in the last two years.
Comic Relief and Unltd: £10m fund to support social enterprises
Comic Relief and Unltd will use their £5m from the DCMS fund to help social entrepreneurs to scale-up their activity and thrive in the new normal.
They will also offer non-financial support to grantees over two years.
Mark Norbury, chief executive of Unltd, said: “This support will build on everything our community of social entrepreneurs have been telling us they need – both over the last six months and over the last few years.
“We will continue to focus on ensuring support makes it to those least represented through traditional grant funding. Over 50% of our grants will go to Black, Asian, minority ethnic and/or disabled entrepreneurs.
“We will also support the whole spectrum of social entrepreneurs – not just those who are asset locked, but also those who are mission locked. This will make funding more equitable and it will support ventures which can increase their impact even more rapidly.”
ARK: £.9.5m to increase access to digital home learning
ARK, a charitable network of 38 schools, has secured £4.75m from the government fund to match its coronavirus appeal.
It says it will work with a range of partners to widen access to digital home learning, specialist English and Maths catch-up teaching, and targeted mental health support for school children.
It will also include educational and training opportunities for vulnerable and at-risk young people – and provide basic necessities to families such as children’s clothes and equipment. The charity says the funds will help more than 33,000 young people and their families.
Onside Foundation: £12m to support young people
The Onside Foundation raised £6m in new investment from large and small private sector philanthropists, corporate funders and charitable supporters across the country to support its YouthZone network.
It said the government funding will be spent on Covid-19-related activities by the end of March, and then the philanthropic support will be used over the next 18 months to help communities overcome the ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic.
Kathryn Morley, chief executive, said: “We believed that the best way to leverage investment for young people is through collaboration. That’s why bringing together the third sector, private sector and public sector in partnership with local communities, for the benefit for young people, is part of the DNA of our growing network of Youth Zones.
“Today’s funding shows that there is willingness and appetite from the private sector to support young people in partnership with government. We are hugely grateful to government and our supporters for this incredible boost to support young people’s future.”
For the year ending March 2019, Onside had a total income of £6.5m.
Pears Foundation: £11m for frontline charities
In a statement on its website, the funder said: “We’re delighted to be working in partnership with Paul Hamlyn Foundation on the scheme, which will increase investment across three of our existing areas of work: social care, young people and mental health. The Foundation has received a £5.5m share of the £85m fund, which will be matched with £5m from our own funding and £500,000 from Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
“Pears Foundation will be working through its existing partnerships with Contact, Mencap, Carers Trust, Mind, Samaritans, Home-Start UK, UK Youth, the Scouts Association and Girlguiding UK to help support groups who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.”
Editor's note
Due to an editing error this story originally said that the value of applications was £130m. The headline and introduction to this story has been corrected.
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