Due to the overwhelming response and high number of applications received since Year 2 of the Communities Mental Health & Wellbeing Fund opened in October, ACVO has taken the decision to close the Fund at all levels and will not be accepting applications from today, Wednesday 7th December 2022. Should more funding become available (as in 2021), ACVO will re-evaluate this decision.  

As mentioned on Monday when we announced that Level 3 of the Fund would no longer be running in Aberdeen given the number of applications received and the amount of funding available to distribute, we anticipated that the Fund would close by the end of this week. However, over the past few days we have received a high number of Level 1 & Level 2 applications so have have had to take the decision to close today instead.

Given the popularity of year 1 of the fund this was something we anticipated could happen. Please refer to our Communities Mental Health & Wellbeing Fund Guidance for Aberdeen City PDF that was published online when the fund launched in October. Within this guidance we urged organisations to apply as early as possible for the fund as “grants are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis” and also stated that “we anticipate [that] the fund will close earlier than March due to demand.”

We understand that this will come as disappointing news for many organisations. The need for funding to support mental health and wellbeing within our community has increased exponentially over the last year. Thanks to all who have submitted an application and shown interest in the Communities Mental Health & Wellbeing Fund this year.

If your organisation is in the process of or was planning to submit an application and would like support in identifying other potential grant funding, please do contact ACVO’s Funding Officer, Claire Shaw.  Details about how to get in touch can be found at acvo.org.uk/funding