ACVO Opportunities

Funding

Community Action

Funding available: £20,001 to £250,000

Applications close: 31/07/2025

About this fund

This funding is for communities in Scotland. By communities we mean people who share an identity, interest or experience. Or people living in the same place.

We’re looking for projects that will help people connect more with each other. We’ll support projects that are open, inclusive and led by their community.

In your application, you must show how you’ll:

  • help people come together. This could be through an activity or place, that’s online or in person
  • reach and support people who experience poverty, disadvantage or discrimination
  • be led by your community. This means that people from your community lead on the project idea, planning and decisions
  • build on the skills, experiences and strengths of your community
  • understand the activities or services that are already available to your community. And show us how your work will fill a gap.

Your project must achieve at least 2 of these outcomes:

  • build positive relationships
  • support people’s health or wellbeing
  • help people improve their access and connection to nature
  • make a positive difference to the environment.

You can achieve more than 2 outcomes. But you will not improve your chances of getting funding by achieving more than 2 outcomes.

We offer funding from £20,001 to £250,000 for up to 5 years.

We’ll talk to you about the length and amount of funding you can apply for when you contact us.

We’re happy to fund organisations that have not had long-term funding before. By this we mean funding lasting 2 years or more. But we’re unlikely to offer them more than £100,000 in total.

We’ll fund new or existing projects.

Area: Scotland
Suitable for: Voluntary or community organisations that are led by a community
Funding size: £20,001 to £250,000. For up to 5 years.
Application deadline: Ongoing

Looking for support with funding?

Identifying funding opportunities and writing grant applications can seem overwhelming, especially when the future sustainability of your group is dependent on gaining funding support. 

Our supportive Funding Officer, Claire Shaw, can help your organisation with every step of the funding application process, from carrying out funding searches to proofreading your application.

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