The Councillors’ Local Community Grant Fund was set up in 2021 to enable councillors from Lichfield District Council to support grassroots activity in their ward by awarding small grants to local organisations. Each councillor has £300 per annum to award to local projects and activities to make a positive impact in their area. Awards made can range from a minimum of £50 to a maximum of £300. An organisation can make an application to more than one councillor in a ward, or can apply to councillors for several wards, if their project works across wards, up to a maximum award of £900.
Eligibility
Who We Are Able to Support
This programme is able to consider applications from:
- Voluntary and community groups
- Charities
- Schools & PTAs
- Not-for-profit organisations
- Non – constituted groups (would need to supply a mission statement)
Who We Are Not Able to Support
This programme is not able to offer funding to:
- Parish Councils
- Individuals
- Private Businesses
- Any other organisation (formal or informal in structure) with the ability to distribute funds and/or assets among its members
- Statutory Organisations (excluding schools)
- Organisations whose annual income is more than £1m per annum
Projects We Can Support
Your project must meet one of the following aims:
- provide local solutions to local needs
- be a one-off event that will benefit the local community and support community resilience
- be a current project or activity that needs a small amount of support to continue or grow
- be for a piece of equipment of a capital item (equipment, materials etc.)
- be a new project or activity that needs some funding to get going
- be a project that stimulates new community activity, such as setting up new local community events and club
Eligible Costs
- General running costs (excluding salaries but project specific sessional worker costs can be funded).
- Provision of equipment e.g., IT equipment, craft materials, furniture.
- Funding towards costs of community events/activities
- Funding towards specific projects – e.g., school holiday youth project, playscheme, coffee morning, gardening group projects.
Ineligible Costs
- Travel and subsistence costs
- Guarantee against organisational loss
- Projects operated on a commercial or for-profit basis.
- The funding of organisations, projects or events which promote or condone extremist ideology, activities, or terrorism.
- Funding towards religious projects or projects that promote religion. Projects delivered by faith-based organisations will be considered, as long as the services they provide are available to people or all faiths or no faith
- Political campaigning activities specific to any one party, including participation in political demonstrations, support of a political party, or the issuing of material which supports or opposes a particular party or government
- Statutory bodies or provision, including towards the provision of core statutory services or services that carry out a statutory responsibility
- Retrospective funding, where the project has already occurred or for goods and services which have already been ordered or purchased prior to funding being approved
Application Process
General Guidance
- Organisations should contact their local Councillor to discuss their project BEFORE submitting an application. Councillors will use this opportunity to ask questions and decide whether they would consider an application from the organisation. If you are not sure which councillor to approach, please click here
- Once the councillor (s) are happy with the project and wish to fund it, applicants should click the “apply now” button at the bottom of this page. Once they have submitted their email address, they will be sent a link to continue with the application form. An applicant will be able to save their progress on the form as they go and return to it later, so make sure to save the link.
- The group submit an application and the team at the Community Foundation will check the content of the application and supporting documents.
- If successful the organisation will be sent a grant offer including a grant agreement. The Community Foundation will only make payment of the grant on receipt of the signed agreement.
- An End of Grant monitoring form will be sent to all successful applicants, and this must be completed and returned at the end of the project or end of grant date, along with copies of receipts/invoices, and photographs or feedback from the project if requested.
Before Applying
Please make sure you’re applying to the correct fund. This programme relates to the Lichfield District Councillor Fund. It is not the Staffordshire County Councillor Fund, which is administered directly by Staffordshire County Council.
What to expect on the application form
You may find the following information useful, so as you are prepared when completing the application form.
1) The application form will request details about your organisation and the designated lead contact for the project. Please ensure that the lead contact has the authority to sign contracts, as they will be financially responsible for managing the award.
2) Regarding the project, the application will then ask the following:
- What will you do during your project / activity?
- What need or disadvantage are you trying to address?
- Which Councillor (s) are you applying to and for how much?
- How will you measure the impact of your project or activity?
3) You will be asked beneficiary data, including target numbers (please be realistic with this as we will expect monitoring to reflect support)
4) Finally, you will be asked how you will spend the grant
Documents You Need to Send Us
Ideally we would like organisations to submit the following documentation:
- Governance document – For example; Constitution or Memorandum and Articles of Association. We can also accept a mission statement for new, non-constituted groups
- Bank statement – Dated within the last three months, clearly showing the account name, account number and sort code
This programme also supports grassroots organisations. If you do not have this documentation please get in touch with our team and we may be able to help you. You can email us here or call us on 01785 339540.
If you have the following additional documentation this would also be helpful:
- Accounts – Your most recent set of accounts, independently examined or audited if they meet the threshold
- Safeguarding policy
- Equity, Diversity & Inclusion policy
Submission Dates
Next Closing Date : 30th November 2026
Assessment Period: Throughout the application window
Panel Date: Open Round – Applications will be considered on submission
Panel Construction: Lichfield District Councillors
Notifications: On decision
Payment: From 28th of each month
Please note, the application window will close when funds have been fully allocated
How to Apply
To apply, please first check that your organisation meets our core eligibility criteria, which can be found here
If you believe you are eligible, click on the “Apply Now” button below, which will take you to our funding portal
If you feel you’d benefit from some support with the online application, please give us a call. We can look at arranging a call or visit to guide you through it.
How to use our funding portal
- You will be asked to register with your name and email address, if this is your first time on our portal, or sign in if you have visited the portal before
- Once in the portal, click on “available Funding”
- This will display a table with all of our available grants
- Find this programme in the list and navigate to the far right hand column, where you will see the word “apply”
- Click on the word “apply” and this will take you to the application form
If you need any support with your application, please contact us using our email address or by calling our team on 01785 339540
If you would like to see the criteria in PDF form, please click this link