Community Chest Grants

Council Community Chest grants are for  voluntary & community sector organisations, particularly small groups, especially those from the most deprived areas, and excluded groups such as:

• Black and minority ethnic communities
• Children & young people
• Older people
• People with disabilities
• Faith communities
• Rural communities
• Travellers
• Refugees
• Lone parents
• Homeless people
• Lesbian and gay groups
• Tenants

 

What kind of activities can the Council Community Chest Support?

Community Chest Grants are aimed at encouraging greater involvement in local community activities, for instance by:

• Funding a community festival or sports day/activity
• Supporting a new group to run a meeting or activity
• Paying for a training programme or learning opportunity for a group's  committee or members
• Small renovations of community facilities
• Supporting other activities by which local community and voluntary groups can contribute to the regeneration or their local area

Who can apply?

You can apply for a grant if :

• You are a voluntary or community organisation
• You have a bank or building society account with 2 signatories
• You have proper accounting procedures and can provide evidence that your organisation is financially viable
• What you do is of direct benefit primarily to Chester residents

Restrictions

The Council Community Chest cannot support certain ineligible activities or projects.  The main items, which are excluded, are:

• Party Political activities
• Promotion of one religion over another
• General appeals
• Debts

Notes

It is important that applicants recognise that the Community Chest fund will always receive more applications that it can hope to fund.   The Assessment Panel often decides to part fund applications.

How much money is available?

Grants of between £100 and £500 are available.  Applications will be assessed within 6 weeks of receipt.

Timetable

Applicants will be notified of the outcome within 6 weeks of the closing date.  Funded groups must complete the activity within the financial year.

The current grant system has two rounds, with closing dates of 3 March and 21 September 2008.

Monitoring

Funded groups are required to keep financial records (receipts/invoices) of how the grant is spent and to fill in a simple monitoring form once the project or activity is completed.

Please return the application form to

The Funding Compact Co-ordinator
Chester City Council
The Forum
Chester
CH1 2HS

Downloads

Small Grants guidelines 2008-09 

Small Grants application form 2008-09