A list of all our available grants can be accessed from our site by clicking the ‘Grants’ tab at the top of any of our web pages or visiting this link – https://lincolnshirecf.co.uk/available-grants/

You can then scroll through and see a short summary of each grant and an overview of how much is available through the Grant, where you need to be located to be able to apply for this Grant and what the closing date for that grant scheme is.

Lincolnshire Community Foundation also host a Grants Matrix which is regularly updated with details of the grants hosted by us as well as grant schemes available to people in Lincolnshire from other regional and national Funders. The Grant Matrix is located on its own page which can be accessed on the dropdown menu of the ‘Grants’ tab mentioned before or by visiting the following page – https://lincolnshirecf.co.uk/grants-matrix/

No two grant funds are the same. We work with a vast array of different organisations and philanthropists who have very different aims and objectives to one another. These Funders may be tied to specific areas or sit within specific sectors which determine how they wish to allocate any funding they provide to us. While we advocate for Funds which are as inclusive of all as possible, we recognise that this is not a simple thing to achieve and that we need to ensure any Funders we work with are achieving what they are looking to achieve with their funding.

All our Funds have an allocated Grant Manager who is knowledgeable in that scheme. When on any specific Fund page, there will be a section on this which outlines who the Grant Manager for that Fund is and provide contact details for that person in particular. The name and details of the Fund Manager will also be available on the Application form and Guidelines for that Fund.

If you are not sure where to begin with your project, please feel free to contact the office at 01529 305825 or by email – info@lincolnshirecf.co.uk – where any of our friendly staff can pick up any concerns and get you to the right destination.

Each of our grants will have a corresponding set of guidelines. Within this document, the criteria for the Fund will be clearly defined and the aims of the Fund will be listed. If you are unable to determine whether your project is a good fit for a Fund from this, you are welcome to contact the Grant Manger whose details will be listed on the specific grant page.

Across all our Funds, there is an expectation for a certain level of documentation to be provided with your application so that Grant Managers can complete due diligence on your organisation and ensure you are eligible for the grant you are applying for. For our grants for organisations, we need to see evidence of any bank accounts set up in the organisation’s name, income and expenditure data (ideally in the form of accounts if you have these, evidence of a management committee in place and your group’s constitution/articles of association/set of rules. There may be further documentation needed for specific grants which will be outlined in the guidelines and application form for these grants.

Not a problem at all. Please contact our Grants Team who can send over our grant forms in another format for anyone unable to fill out an online form. This includes in word format to be filled out offline on the computer or in print which can be posted back to the Team.

Unfortunately not. We are only able to support projects and activities that are set to take place in the future.

If you know which grant you want to apply for and want to make an application, you should visit that Fund’s specific page on our website. If you click ‘View Grant’ on a Fund on our Available Grants page, this will take you to a specific page where you will find more detail about the grant scheme. On all our Grant pages, there is an orange ‘Download Application’ button which once clicked will download a blank copy of the application form and guidelines for that scheme to your device which you can either complete digitally or print out and handwrite this.

We invite you to include as much details as possible within these applications so that we have as much information as possible to go to Panel members with. We aim to make these applications are simple and efficient as possible to gather the essential data we need as smoothly and with as few questions for you as possible. However, if you need any support with filling in an application, the Grant Manager for the Fund you are applying for will be happy to support you with this.  Once completed, the filled in application can then be sent either by email to the Grant Manager for that scheme or by post to our Office – the address of which is listed on all our application forms.

Once a Grant Manager has received your application, they will contact you either by email to acknowledge receipt of your application. Within this email, the Grant Manager will let you know what you have applied for, outline any immediate concerns and lay out a timeline of the grants process so you know when to expect certain stages to occur.

Between the closing date and panels meeting to discuss your application, there is an assessment period in which Grant Managers and supporting staff prepare your application for review at Panel and ensure everything needed is in place. You may be contacted by LCF staff during this period if there is anything that the team need clarifying or anything the team require additionally to help support your application further. This is equally a chance for you to inform staff of any additional information you feel may support your application further.

For the majority of our Funds, a Panel of individuals outside of Lincolnshire Community Foundation will review applications, provide insights and make a judgement on whether an application is successful or not. These individuals typically come from local communities, community sector partners and the Funders themselves amongst others who are knowledgeable and experienced in the area of benefit or in a specific sector relevant to the grant which ensures that any funding going out is doing so in the most effective way.

While Lincolnshire Community Foundation staff are present at Panel meetings to present potential projects and advocate for them to Panel members, LCF staff and trustees have no voting powers in these settings.

Once a Panel Meeting has taken place and the outcomes of these discussions have been finalized, the Grant Manager will contact you to inform you of the outcome of your application. If you are unsuccessful with your bid to a scheme, the Grant Manager will make you aware of this and provide feedback to provide context as to why the decision was made. If you are successful with your bid to the scheme, the Grant Manager will use this chance to inform you of this decision and outline the next steps of your grant scheme including any conditions of the funding, any expectations set by the Funders and LCF and when to expect payment of the grant.

The answer to this question is very dependent on which scheme you are applying to. Some of our schemes require applicants to wait for a period of time before applying again if unsuccessful or in the event they have received funding from the same scheme recently. Other schemes do not have this same condition. It is best in this case to consult the guidelines for the Fund in question or speak to that Fund’s Grant Manager.

Our grants are generally intended to be spent within a year of receipt although the LCF Team may set a different timeline for you based on what is mentioned in your application.

None of our current schemes are able to provide funding over multiple years as we receive annual budgets and allocations for our Funds.

For most applicants, we ask for updates in the form of Impact Reports which are sent to you if you are successful in obtaining funding. Generally, we ask for a report upon completion of project spend, as well as at the halfway point of your project if your project is more than 6 months long. These reports are short and easy to complete, yet provide important information that we can feed back to our Funders to show them that funding is being used and that the outcomes expected from projects are being met. These, like our application form, can be sent to Grant Managers by email or through the post to our Office. We love sharing images, stories and case studies with our Funders and so we certainly encourage these to be included with any impact forms you send to us.

Some Funders may ask for more rigorous monitoring of successful applicants which Grant Managers and support staff will help you with should this apply to a Fund you are successful with.