£3m to Support Community Businesses in England Affected by COVID-19

£3m to Support Community Businesses in England Affected by COVID-19

Established community businesses in England will be able to apply for unrestricted grants to help them adapt to the challenges moving forward as the country moves into the next phase of the pandemic.

Power to Change is offering unrestricted grants of between £10,000 and £20,000 to community business that were financially viable before the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.

Priority will be given to:

Areas of England facing high levels of deprivation (IMD of 1-3).

Organisations supported and led by Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME).

Organisations supported and led by disabled people.

Organisations that are committed to promoting diversity on their board of trustees, amongst their leadership team and staff, volunteers and service users.

The funding could be used to support the following:

Meeting core staffing costs which would otherwise be at risk due to the pressure on community businesses to cut costs.

Creating breathing space for the organisation, giving them time to take a step back, explore new options and focus on business planning.

Increased costs of a capital project that had been planned before the pandemic.

Contributing to capital costs of adapting operations.

Cashflow support due to delays to work, or to cover lost trading income.

There will be three application rounds with very narrow application windows of three hours each on 3 November, 12 January 2021 and 2 March 2021.

Power to Change will provide further information about the criteria and the application process in a free webinar on Tuesday, 20 October 2020 (1pm).

Round one is open for applications from 10am to 1pm on 3 November 2020.

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