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Community Sector: Grassroots Grants

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office (Phil Hope) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. The Community Development Foundation will be the lead national partner for Grassroots Grants, the Government's programme to help develop and sustain the grant funding available to small community organisations in England. The final report of the review of The future role of the third sector in social and economic regeneration (Cmnd 7189) announced that, in addition to the £80 million we will be making available for small grants to the community sector over the CSR period, we would also make £50 million available in capital grants to local independent foundations to invest in endowment funds. These capital grants will generate income to support frontline organisations in the future and lever in additional money from the private sector on a matched basis. The allocation of £130 million underlines the high importance which the Government attach to this strategy. This combined programme will be called Grassroots Grants. It will be targeted at improving the grant funding available to the smallest community organisations which play a vital role in building strong and active communities. It will be delivered locally by independent local funders with good knowledge of their local communities and the ability to reach out and engage both small community organisations and donors. The Community Development Foundation, as lead national partner, will be responsible for running a selection process to identify and appoint the local funders. It will also manage the programme once the local funders have been appointed. CDF has considerable understanding of the community sector in England and experience of managing grant programmes. The appointment is being made under a framework agreement for the provision of grant administration services which the Government have with CDF and other service providers. CDF will open the application process to select local funders in January and applications will be invited by April. Appointments of local funders will be made in June. Full details of the application process and the programme will be announced in January.