Our Supporters
We have so far been awarding grants from our special Coronavirus funds to organisations already on our database which we contacted directly. We are now inviting applications from other local charities and community groups in Tyne & Wear and Northumberland who are providing immediate relief to vulnerable people affected by the Covid-19 crisis.
Please read all the guidelines to check eligibility before you apply. You can read the guidelines and apply here
Please note that if you are not eligible for these funds but still require support you can still make a general application which can be considered for any of our funds by going to our apply page.
If you've an urgent query, you can email us at general@communityfoundation.org.uk. More information is in the FAQs below.
Through the Coronavirus Response and Recovery Fund, we are supporting local charities and community organisations across Tyne & Wear and Northumberland. Currently we are working on response funding: getting money to organisations that are supporting vulnerable groups affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Later we will look at recovery funding for local charities and community organisations whose operations and finances have been affected so they can continue their activities once the outbreak eases.
The Community Foundation set up the Fund with and initial £200,000 contribution. Newcastle Building Society has become a founding partner in the fund with a donation of £100,000. Virgin Money Foundation and the Sir James Knott Trust have also supported us with donations of £100,000 each. Information about other supporters who wish their details to be shared is below and on our JustGiving page.
If you are a business, funder or an individual that would prefer to give by BACS, please contact us at coronavirusfund@communityfoundation.org.uk and we will get back to you with the details you need.
For media queries about the Fund, please contact Adam Lopardo on al@communityfoundation.org.uk
As part of our commitment to openness and transparency you can find a full list of grants from our Coronavirus funds on 360 Giving's Covid Tracker which will be updated regularly. We will also include any Covid-19 related grants we make from other funds.
Below are quotes from some of our grantees about what difference grants from our coronavirus funds will make.
The Community Foundation is also distributing money raised through the National Emergencies Trust's Coronavirus appeal in Tyne & Wear and Northumberland.
You can read more about the appeal here. Funding has already gone to foodbanks working in every local authority area on our patch and to organisations helping a wider group of vulnerable people.
We are now accepting applications to our Coronavirus funds. Please see the information for applicants above.
Grants from both funds will go to small, local charities and community organisations that meet our normal criteria for funding. So far we have been approaching existing grant recipients to offer extra funding. But the funds are now open for wider applications. Please visit the apply page and our call for applications for more information.
Our Coronavirus Funds are now open to application from local charities and community groups in Tyne & Wear and Northumberland who are providing immediate relief to vulnerable people affected by the Covid-19 crisis. Please fully read the guidelines here to check eligibility before you apply. If you are not eligible for these funds but still require support you can still make a general application which can be considered for any of our funds by going to our apply page.
You may also be able to apply for help from other funders. Information about where to go for help with funding is here www.communityfoundation.org.uk/apply/help-and-support/
We understand the COVID-19 pandemic is having, and will continue to have, a big impact on individuals and families in our area. Our funds have been set up to support organisations that can help people most affected. We are not providing grants directly to individuals or families. If you are worried about your health or a loved one’s, please follow the advice at www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/. If you are worried about money or other issues, you can contact a CAB www.citizensadvice.org.uk/ or other local advice centre www.adviceuk.org.uk/looking-for-advice/
Thank you for your generosity. Please email us at coronavirusfund@communityfoundation.org.uk and we will be in touch with the details of how to donate. If you wish, we will add your organisation’s name and logo to our list of supporters on this page. We’ll also give you material you can share with your staff and stakeholders about the fund and the organisations we support through it. If you would prefer to support the national appeal, you can find out how here.
To make sure we can run the funds as simply and effectively as we can, we need to pool all gifts into one pot for distribution. Therefore, we can’t accept gifts restricted for a specific organisation or area. If you have a particular charity or community group you want to support, we encourage you to give to them directly.
Our focus with these funds is on getting financial support to charities and community organisations so they can respond to the virus and recover from its impact. We are not able to handle donations of goods or in-kind services ourselves. However, we encourage you to think about donating food to a local foodbank www.trusselltrust.org/get-help/find-a-foodbank/. You may also want to get involved with your local community response – www.covidmutualaid.org is a good place to start.
We appreciate the generosity of people who’d like to fundraise for us, but we do not want anyone running events or activities to raise funds which might go against Government advice on social distancing. Instead, we encourage you to share information about our fund and how to make a donation via our Just Giving page.
The funds will support charities and community organisations based and operating in Tyne & Wear (Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Gateshead and Sunderland) and Northumberland. If you want to support communities elsewhere in the UK or internationally, there is the National Emergencies Trust or the World Health Organisation appeal www.cafonline.org/home/covid-19-fund. You may wish to contact your local community foundation to see if there are similar funds in your area www.ukcommunityfoundations.org/our-network
The National Emergencies Trust has launched a UK-wide fundraising appeal in partnership with the British Red Cross to support local charities. Some of the money raised will be allocated to us to award in grants in Tyne & Wear and Northumberland. We are running that alongside our own Coronavirus Response and Recovery Fund.
We have already awarded several waves of grants and are publishing names of grantees and more information on a regular basis. Information will be on this page, or you can see our grants (and those of other funders) on a dedicated site set up by 360 Giving.
The Foundation's own income is being significantly affected by the economic impact of the Coronavirus outbreak. To make sure we can run the fund effectively and cover the necessary staff time, we are going to retain 5% of the net amount of new gifts to our Coronavirus Response and Recovery Fund. That means if your gift is eligible, the cost contribution will in effect come from the Gift Aid we claim. In recognition of the scale of the crisis, this is significantly less than the contribution we normally retain from funds.
For the National Emergency Trust appeal, distributors are retaining up to 8% of funds we receive to support our costs.
Our cost contributions will be kepi under review as the outbreak and our work in response progresses.
