Cost-of-Living Fund

The Community Foundation set up its Cost-of-Living Fund in autumn 2022 to support charities and community organisations in Tyne & Wear and Northumberland that help people most affected by the cost-of-living crisis. The focus is on organisations that are facing greater demand on their services at the same time as rising costs. We want to make sure they have the capacity and resources to keep serving communities.

You can find out more in our Vital Signs report: The cost-of-living crisis in North East England, how philanthropy can help now and build long-term resilience

The Foundation provided an initial £100,000 from its unrestricted funds. We then called on existing donors, plus other businesses, individuals and funders, to help grow the fund. To date, we have more than quadrupled the pot to over £400,000.

We are targeting organisations that fit one or more of the following criteria.

• income under £500,000;
• community centres, village halls and other hubs;
• food banks and others providing free/low-cost goods to people experiencing poverty
• money, debt and welfare advice centres
• organisations that provide services to:
  • people in crisis including those experiencing violence/abuse;
  • homeless and poorly housed people;
  • vulnerable older people including those living in care settings;
  • disabled people and people with long-term limiting health conditions including mental health issues;
  • people on low and/or insecure household incomes;
  • children and young people from disadvantaged areas.

For our first funding round in December 2022, we invited expressions of interest from around 100 organisations we had previously supported. 7 invited organisations said they currently had sufficient resource or other funding to deal with pressures this winter. 38 sent expressions of interest and we prioritised those facing the most immediate pressure of rising demand and costs. As a result, we allocated the first £152,000 from the Fund in unrestricted grants of between £3,000 and £6,000 to 33 organisations working in Newcastle (4), Newcastle and North Tyneside (1), North Tyneside (2), Gateshead (6), Gateshead and South Tyneside (1), South Tyneside (1) Sunderland (3), Northumberland (13) and region-wide (2). Our Second funding round is closed and we will share updates in March 2023

Organisations awarded funding in round 1

The Fund will support charities and community organisations in Tyne & Wear (Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Gateshead and Sunderland) and Northumberland.

If you want to support communities elsewhere in the UK, you may wish to contact your local community foundation to see if there are similar funds in your area.

We understand the cost-of-living crisis is having a big impact on individuals and families in our area. Our fund has been set up to support charities and community organisations that can help people most affected. We are not providing grants directly to individuals or families themselves. Information about where to go for support is on our website here.

Thank you for your generosity. Please contact us and we will be in touch with details of how to donate. If you wish, we will add your organisation’s name to our list of supporters on this page. We’ll also give you information you can share with your staff and stakeholders about the fund and the organisations we support through it.

To make sure we can run the fund as simply and effectively as we can, we need to pool all contributions into one pot for distribution. So, we can’t accept gifts which are 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 this fund is on getting financial support to charities and community organisations. 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.

Increased costs

• Rent rises – in some cases doubling – and room hire fees for activities going up.
• Rising utility costs especially for organisations in poorly insulated/heated/lit spaces – references to increases of between 50 to 250 percent on previous bills.
• Rising fuel costs for organisations providing transport and services to people in different locations including in vulnerable people’s homes.
• Increased price of food, drink and other goods at the same time as reduced donations, so more having to be spend on buying stock for e.g. food/clothing banks to meet demand.
• Volunteers who wouldn’t previously have asked for expenses now having to do so.
• Need to increase pay to retain/recruit staff, meet national minimum wage etc.
• Need to cover costs for people/groups to participate in activities which would previously have been subsidised/funded elsewhere.
• Inflation not built into existing funding and contracts.

Increased demand

• More direct approaches from people wanting to access services and support.
• More referrals from statutory bodies (examples of increases between 75 and 200 percent).
• Providing warm spaces and other daytime services meaning facilities have to be open and staffed for longer.
• More people asking for financial aid or meals, including families where children are not eligible for free school meals.
• More people asking for help with childcare especially after school.
• More mental health and crisis support needed.
• Greater incidence of domestic abuse and substance/alcohol misuse.
• Own staff and volunteers facing financial stress.

Other actions organisations are taking

• Spending cash reserves
• Improving energy efficiency e.g. thermostatic valves/foil panels on radiators; LED lightbulbs.
• Bulk purchasing in own right or with other organisations.
• Closing facilities on some days or reducing staffing/volunteer numbers.
• Reducing journeys and offering support to people and families via Zoom or phone
• Cutting budgets for staff training.
• Redundancies
• Appealing for extra donations of money and goods.
• Making more funding applications
• Volunteers agreeing not to claim expenses.
• Trying to renegotiate public sector contracts.

The first round of grants were agreed in December 2022.  This second round was an open call which closed in early March 2022 with grants to be made by the end of the month. We are still  seeking further contributions from existing and new donors to meet future demand. We are also seeking to raise awareness of the issues local organisations are facing with policy- and decision-makers here and nationally.