Culture and community spaces at risk resources

City Hall's support and funding opportunities

• The Mayor's London Business Hub portal provides access to free business support programmes, webinars and events.

For more information on City Hall's funding opportunities available to support communities and civil society organisations in London, please visit our community grants and funding page.

External funding opportunities

• Alpkit Foundation makes small awards to people, groups and schools who work to remove the barriers in getting outdoors and experience wild places.
• Arts Council England's National Lottery Project Grants is an open access programme for arts, museums and libraries projects. The fund provides support to individual artists, community and cultural organisations.
• Arts & Culture Finance by Nesta is offering repayable finance to arts, culture and heritage organisations.
• The Art Fund offers funding for heritage centres and libraries through a range of small and large grants.
• The Black Artists Grant (BAG) is offered by Creative Debuts as a no-strings attached financial support to help Black artists.
• British Airways Better World Community Fund provides 50 per cent of project target funds to charities or social enterprises in support of innovative projects that focus on creating positive impact. Key themes include: the environment; diversity, inclusion and wellbeing; education and employability; thriving communities. Applicants must be over 18 years or older, based in and benefitting the UK, registered charities or social enterprises. Rolling deadline.
• The City Bridge Trust supports charitable causes in London. For more information on current funding opportunities, please check their funding programmes list.

• The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and The National Lottery Community Fund have launched The Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund. The fund will support frontline charities and community organisations struggling to meet increased demand for their critical services, such as the provision of food, emergency provisions, shelter, safe spaces, warmth and financial or housing advice. Organisations can apply for grant funding between £10,000 and £75,000. The deadline for applications is 16 October 2023 at 12 noon.

• The government has announced a £150 million Community Ownership Fund for communities across the United Kingdom. It has been set up to help communities take ownership of assets and amenities at risk of closure. It will run for 4 years.
• The Edith M Ellis Trust provides grants to organisations who work on Quaker work and witness, peace-building and conflict resolution, interfaith and ecumenical understanding, climate change mitigation, work with forced migrants, including internally displaced people. They offer seed grants of up to £5,000 to organisations with an annual turnover of less than £350,000.
• The Foyle Foundation is an independent grant-making trust that distributes grants to UK charities.
• Charities, social enterprises, and private companies can apply for funding from the Friends Provident Foundation's 4D Economy Grants to support projects and activities that promote fairness and sustainability in the economy. The grants focus on four key areas: diversification, decarbonisation, democratisation, and decentralisation. Main grants of up to £200,000 are available for projects or core funding and applications can be made at any time, with decisions within 3- 6 months. Small grants of up to £10,000 are also available to new and emergent organisations, specific projects wishing to test an idea and projects bringing forward current marginalised voices in the economy, with decisions made within 6 weeks.
• The Garfield-Weston Foundation is a family-founded grant-making Trust that supports charities across the UK.
• The Hilden Charitable Fund administers funding to charities in the UK and non-governmental organisations in the developing world. In the UK, the Fund supports projects concerned with: homelessness, people seeking asylum and refugees, community-based initiatives for young people aged 16-25 and penal/prison reform.
• John Lyon’s Charity is offering small and large grants to organisations that seek to promote the life-chances of children and young people through education.
• Leathersellers’ Company is offering one-off grants up to £5,000, with a fast track application process, available to UK registered charities (including Charitable Incorporated Organisations - CIO, but not Community Interest Comapnies - CIC). They support organisations that are working to provide assistance to vulnerable people in their community in geographical areas of deprivation (within the UK) with an annual income of under £200,000 (secured for the coming year). The Leathersellers' Company recognises all relative measures of deprivation as tracked by the Indices of Deprivation or similar tools. They ask you who your work helps and why this is needed for that group or in that area so you can explain the need that exists there.
• National Lottery Community Fund gives grants to organisations in the UK to help improve their communities.
• Necessisty is running funding rounds throughout the year for local projects.
• Paul Hamlyn Foundation is offering number of large and small grants across six funding priority areas. Rolling deadlines.
• Pears Foundation was established by Mark, Trevor and David Pears, all of whom serve as its Trustees. Their purpose was to apply some of the resources of their family’s business, the William Pears Group, to fund organisations and projects working to deliver progress on key issues affecting the wellbeing of people in the UK and all over the world.
• Power to Change provides programmes and funding opportunities for community businesses.
• Social Investment Business' Recovery Loan Fund provides loans to UK charities and social enterprises who have been impacted by COVID-19 and need funds to help them to survive, recover and grow. The Fund also provides unrestricted grants (alongside the loan) and support to Black and Minoritised Ethnicity -led charities and social enterprises that meet the grant criteria.
• The Sigrid Rausing Trust runs ten grant-making programmes, organised under three themes: human rights; fairness and inclusion and the environment. In addition, they make occasional grants in other fields, including medical and humanities research.
• The Pilgrim Trust provides grants to UK-based registered charities, organisations with exempt charitable status, and recognised public bodies across three focus areas: young women's mental health, preservation and conservation of historic buildings, structures and architectural features, and research, advocacy and development.
• The Span Trust seeks to fund projects by awarding grants between £5,000 and £20,000 that will alleviate poverty, disability, age or ill health, and advance urban regeneration through the improvement of the built environment. They offer grants to both registered and exempt charities. The Trust accepts applications twice annually: by 11.59pm on the last Friday of January and by 11.59pm on the last Friday of June.
• Sport England is offering several funds to help community sport and physical activity organisations who have been experiencing short term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to COVID-19.
• The Strategic Legal Fund for Vulnerable Young Migrants (SLF) supports legal work that goes beyond securing justice for an individual and makes a significant contribution to law, practice and procedures to uphold and promote the rights of vulnerable migrant children and young people more generally.
• Tesco Community Grants is open for applications from charities and community organisations to bid for up to £1,500.
• Trusthouse Charitable Foundation is giving grants to small and medium sized local organisations in the UK with a demonstrable track record of success working to address local issues in communities of extreme urban deprivation and deprived rural districts. Rolling application deadline.
• Unbound Philanthropy is supporting organisations with an explicit social purpose or activist approach to their work across health, gender, education, criminal justice, food justice and race.
• The William Wates Memorial Trust aims to enhance the lives of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds living in London and the South East.
• The Woodward Charitable Trust is offering grant funding to small-scale, locally-based charitable initiatives in the UK in the following areas: children and young people, disadvantaged families, and prisoners and ex-offenders.
• Yapp Charitable Trust is offering grants of up to £3,000 to small UK charities, registered charities in England and Wales, with a total annual expenditure of less than £40,000, to cover running costs.

We have worked with Counterculture and the London Business Hub to develop online resources to support people and organisations opening and operating community and cultural spaces in London. Our guide takes readers through the legal, operational, financial, and practical steps they need to take to operate out of space. The guide is accompanied by a series of practical case studies from the cultural and community sector.

Good Governance

Governance refers to the way in which decisions are made within an organisation. It includes the legal structure, how it is regulated, policies and procedures and how it delivers against the agreed mission and vision.

The Good Governance (pdf) resource is designed to help community organisations check they have appropriate governance in place.

Community Engagement & Marketing

Communicating with stakeholders is always important, and perhaps more so now. These guides help you get and keep local people involved in your work. It covers the why and how of community engagement.

• How to get and keep local people involved in your work (pdf)

Collaboration

• Many ways to collaborate (pdf). Many organisations have been in discussion with strategic partners during the crisis. Here we outline some of the main types of collaboration and provide three steps to make the process more successful.
• Collaborating for commissioning (pdf). Working with local authorities and the NHS to deliver commissioned services – this guide looks at key ways to effectively collaborate.

Business and Financial Planning

• Business plan template and guidance (pdf). Use this template to write a business plan, or to revisit and repurpose your business model in the current situation.

Owning and Managing buildings

• Understanding Community Asset Transfer

Topic: Securing your space: Planning, leaseholds and rent.

For organisations at risk due to commercial developments, lease renewal insecurity or unsustainable rental demands, this presentation covers engagement with planners and top tips on negotiating lease renewals and rent reviews. It also provides information on finding a new or alternative space for your organisation.

Hosted by Daniel Ailion, AEG Europe

In association with Creative United and the London Business Hub.

Download the 'Securing your space: Planning, leaseholds and rent' presentation

Topic: Business planning and growth

Understand the importance of organisational planning and how it can put your cultural or community organisation on a secure and sustainable footing. The presentation looks at how to construct a business plan to achieve future objectives and provide advice on financial costs and modelling associated with the forthcoming stages of our plans.

Hosted by Emma Clarke, Triquest Solutions Limited

In association with Creative United and the London Business Hub.

Download the 'Business planning and growth' presentation

Topic: Understanding business rates

Business rates are charged on most non-domestic properties by local councils based on the business’s rateable value. This presentation gives an overview of business rates calculation, relief and exemptions criteria. It also examines options for hardship relief or transitional relief to ease the burden of business rates to your organisation.

Hosted by Peter Marshall, Turner Morum

In association with Creative United and the London Business Hub.

Download the 'Understanding business rates' presentation

Topic: Communications and Social Media for Community Organisations

This focuses on how community organisations can communicate effectively across different mediums. The first part of the webinar looks at the do's and don'ts of visual communication from front of house signage, posters and digital assets. The second part focuses on websites, web pages and social media. The webinar also covers the importance of photography and film archiving.

Hosted by objectif

Watch the meeting recording

Download the Communications and Social Media for Community Organisations presentation

Funding opportunities

• Financial assistance for writers by Society of Authors
• Financial assistance for directors of stage & screen by Directors’ Charitable Foundation
• Financial assistance for performing arts professionals from Equity Charitable Trust
• Financial assistance, including grants and hardship funds, for members of the Musician’s Union
• Financial assistance for visual artists from The Eaton Fund
• Dance Fund's Hardship Fund for professional dancers

Advice and support

• Government’s Universal Credit benefit
• Guidance with government benefits and grants to individuals from Turn2us
• Health and wellbeing support for freelances from Leapers

Advice and support

• The Music Venue Trust has produced two free downloadable guidance documents to support individuals and organisations wanting to open a grassroots music venue and once they have, how to run one.

Advice and support

• Guidance from Stonewall for LGBTQ+ inclusive organisations

Advice and support

• Advice from Theatres Trust for theatre groups and venues
• Theatres Means Business - resources for the theatre sector
• Society of London Theatres’ advice for members
• The Theatre Helpline is a free, independent and confidential phone and email service that provides support to people working in the theatre industry

Advice and support

• Advice from Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for pubs
• Resources from British Institute of Innkeepers for pubs
• Advice from the Licensed Trade Charity for pubs, bars and breweries

Funding Opportunities

• Explore funding programmes from Heritage Lottery Fund
• Art Fund's funding programmes for Museums and Galleries

Advice and support

• Guidance and support from Historic England
• Guidance and support for Archives from Archives and Records Association and National Archives

Advice and support

• Mayor of London's partnership with Studio Makers to offer advisory and legal support to affordable artist studio providers
• Funding and support from the British Film Institute for filmmakers and the screen industry
• Business support from UKIE for the games and interactive entertainment industry
• Resources from the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain for members

• Advice from Charities Aid Foundation for charitable sector
• Good Finance is a collaborative project to help improve access to information on social investment for charities and social enterprises.
• Guidance for small businesses from the Federation of Small Businesses.
• Guidance from the NCVO for voluntary organisations.
• NFP Workshops are offering affordable training courses on bid writing, fundraising, and recruiting and managing volunteers.
• Free expert panels, video insights and surgery sessions from People Make It Work.
• Spark and Co. provides education, information and connection for people in the UK disproportionately affected by both the Covid-19 crisis and systemic inequality.