Vaughan Williams Foundation

The Foundation offers funding towards:

• the performance, commissioning or recording of music by professional British/Irish composers active in the last 100 years
• projects and organisations in the UK which create developmental opportunities for composers, or which promote wider awareness of British/Irish music of the last 100 years

Grants will generally only be awarded for notated music, scored for live performers. (Repertoire which combines electronics with live performers will be considered.)

Supported repertoire must be by named composers of British or Irish nationality, or who have been resident in the UK for a minimum of five years.

Ensembles, organisations, individual performers or composers may apply.

They do not generally support the performances of composers currently in higher education, or performances by student ensembles.  

Grant amount: most grants will be under £3,000. Larger grants may be given for significant projects.

Deadline(s):

• Thursday 1 May 2025 (for work taking place from August 2025 onwards)
• Wednesday 3 September 2025
• Monday 5 January 2026

Find out more:

Youth Music Catalyser Fund

The Youth Music Catalyser Fund offers grants to organisations in England who want to sustain work, scale-up delivery, or create change in sector practice.

Catalyser programmes must support children and young people who face barriers to make, learn or earn in music, and aim to make music activity more inclusive so everyone can access it.

A Catalyser programme will be sustaining work, scaling up-work or creating change in sector practice (or all three!).

Your work must meet one of our themes: 

• Early years
• Disabled, d/Deaf and neurodivergent young people
• Youth justice system
• Young people facing barriers
• Young adults
• Organisations and the workforce

Grant amount: between £30,001 and £300,000

Deadline: 2 May 2025 for Expressions of Interest

Find out more:

Heritage Conservation Grants | The Leche Trust

The Leche Trust support the conservation of historically, artistically and culturally significant buildings and objects dating from before 1837 that are in urgent need of remedial treatment.  Items must be in public or charitable ownership and accessible to the public.

Items might include individual paintings, sculpture and monuments, wall paintings and non-structural architectural fittings such as decorative plaster work and panelling. They will also consider applications relating to archaeological finds, items within archives and libraries and other decorative art objects. 

Grant amount: up to £5,000

Deadline: 2 May 2025

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Performing Arts Grants | The Leche Trust

The Leche Trust believe that the arts -- artists -- make the world a better place. A healthy and dynamic society is reflected in a vibrant arts ecology: they want to support work that is original, to nurture artists and their creativity.

Their priorities are:

• New Works in Performing Arts: the commissioning, development, production and/or performance of new works in music, theatre, dance and performance across all genres.
• Artists’ Professional Development: to support artists’ professional development through programmes that address a clear need or gap in development. These programmes can be aimed at early or mid-career artists, but they need to reflect current context and practices.

Applicants must be UK registered charities or local authority-run venues, with a turnover of less than £1.5m per annum.

They are keen to support projects throughout the UK, particularly encouraging applications from outside London and South-East England.

Grant amount: around £4,000

Deadline: 2 May 2025

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UKSPF funding for capital projects in Shropshire

Shropshire Council is pleased to announce the availability of capital funds from the UK Shared Prosperity Funds (UKSPF) and The Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) for the year 2025/2026.

Funding is available for 4-6 capital projects with a minimum grant value of £125,000.

The call is specifically for capital only infrastructure projects under the community and place priority, focusing on the themes of healthy, safe, and inclusive communities and thriving places.

The following intervention categories are available for funding:

• Creation and improvement to Local Green and Blue spaces – Minimum Grant: £125,000 (match preferred at minimum 20%).
• Enhancing existing cultural, historic and heritage institutions – Minimum Grant: £125,000 (match preferred at minimum 20%).
• Active Travel enhancements in the local area – minimum Grant: £125,000 (Match preferred at minimum 20%).

Applications are welcomed from legally recognised organisations. Applications cannot be made by an individual or sole trader.

Grant amount: £125,000

Deadline: 5 May 2025

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Art Fund Student Opportunities Grant

This funding aims to help museums, galleries and visual arts organisations provide paid opportunities for full-time university students to gain meaningful, developmental work experience that enables them to explore their interest in the arts, and related future career options. In turn, museums, galleries and visual arts organisations gain skilled and accountable resource to help realise projects important to them.

Applications are assessed on quality of opportunity, the scope of professional development and evidence of the impact on your organisation. They will also take into consideration the location of the venue. They encourage applications that benefit as many students as possible and that focus on facilitating public engagement with art – whether that be online or in real life. 

They will fund the costs associated with paying students for the time they spend supporting your organisation in delivering projects. This is based on the current national living wage rate. 

Grant amount: up to £10,000

Deadline(s): 9 May 2025 and 19 September 2025

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Fidelio Charitable Trust

Fidelio welcomes applications for grants in support of the Arts particularly for Music, including Opera, Lieder, Composition and Dance.

Fidelio aims to provide support for individuals (over the age of 21) or groups of exceptional ability, to enable them for example:

• To receive special tuition or coaching (e.g. in the case of musicians to attend Master Classes)
• To participate in external competitions
• To be supported for a specially arranged performance
• To receive support for a musical composition

Applications need to be supported by Institutions, Colleges, Arts Festivals or other similar arts organisations in the United Kingdom with recognised relevant expertise. Applications from individuals or groups seeking funding for themselves or their children without such support will not be considered. Applications are not generally considered for activities for people under the age of 21, or for course fees, capital items or retrospective expenditure.

Grant amount: up to £5,000

Deadlines: 

• May 12 2025
• October 1 2025

Find out more:

Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award 2025

The Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award of £3,000, facilitated by FotoDocument and supported by Nikon, is granted annually to a professional female photographer towards the completion of a compelling and cohesive documentary photo essay which addresses an important social, environmental, economic, or cultural issue, whether local or global. The Award is reserved solely for documentary photographers working on projects which are intended to make the world a better place and which may be unreported / under-reported. The work should, in part, showcase positive solutions to any issue/s it raises as well as demonstrate impact through practical engagement on the ground.

• open to women in any stage of their careers
• must have already started their photo essay for which they are seeking funding
• must have already completed one other documentary photo essay
• must be over 18
• can be based anywhere in the world

Amount: £3,000

Deadline: Friday 16 May 2025

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Hinrichsen Foundation Music Grants for Multi-Year Partnerships

Hinrichsen Foundation is offering multi-year grant partnerships for organisations and charities across the UK for projects and activities that focus on the performance, commissioning, or recording of contemporary music.

In this round, funding is exclusively for multi-year partnerships that:

• Align with The Hinrichsen Foundation's values and objectives for contemporary and experimental music.
• Establish stable and valuable contributions to the UK's new music ecology.
• Provide or create shared resources that benefit the wider new music community.
• Demonstrate and promote effective practices that balance quality and diversity in production and reception.
• Outline a clear potential impact on the contemporary music scene in the United Kingdom. Partnerships should aim to achieve at least regional, if not national, impact.
• Express a clear programme of activity and project timeline, parameters, and outputs.

Proposals should involve thoughtful collaboration between composers, musicians, and those responsible for making the project public. Applications that take artistic risks, promote diversity, and consider sustainability are encouraged.

Grant amount: up to £10,000 per year for up to 3 years

Deadline: 18 May 2025

Find out more:

Create Growth Programme | Innovate UK

Innovate UK (IUK) has launched the Create Growth Programme, allocating up to £8 million to support high-growth creative businesses in selected regions of England. The programme is designed to help businesses scale, build investor networks and explore innovation projects.

Businesses must demonstrate an ambition for growth and belong to the creative industries, focusing on sectors such as advertising, architecture, design, film, television, gaming, music and publishing.

Eligible applicants must be UK-registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprises operating in one of the 12 designated Create Growth Programme regions:

• Greater Manchester
• Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire
• North East of England
• West of England and Cornwall
• South East Coast
• Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Greater Lincolnshire
• Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
• Hull and East Yorkshire
• West Midlands
• West Yorkshire
• Devon
• Hertfordshire

Grant amount(s):

• between £20,000 to £50,000 for small projects
• £50,000 to £200,000 for larger projects that require match-funding.

Deadline: 29 May 2025

Find out more:

Postcode Local Trust (West of England)

Back for another year, the Postcode Local Trust is supporting organisations across the West of England with unrestricted funding in 2025. 

The funding is for projects that have a clear alignment with one of the Trust’s themes for 2025: 

• Enabling participation in physical activity
• Enabling participation in the arts
• Improving biodiversity and responding to the climate emergency
• Improving green spaces and increasing access to the outdoors
• Preventing or reducing the impact of poverty
• Providing support to improve mental health
• Supporting marginalised groups and tackling inequality

Grant amounts: dependent on the organisation’s not-for-profit legal structure, grants between £500 and £2,500 or between £500 and £25,000 

Deadline(s): Round 2 opens 26 May and closes 2 June 2025. Round 3 to be confirmed later in the year.

Find out more:

Theatres Trust Small Grants

Theatres Trust, the national advisory public body for theatres in the UK, offers small grants for essential works to not-for-profit theatres in the UK that will enable them to be viable and thrive in the future.

The grants will support small capital improvements to theatres run by charities and not-for-profit groups that will make a big impact to a theatre's resilience, sustainability or accessibility, or to improving the diversity of audiences.

Eligible projects include:

• Improvements and repairs to building fabric.
• Purchase of key plant and machinery.
• Purchase of capital items that improve physical access and the audience/participant experience.
• Purchase of equipment to improve digital access.

Grant amount: up to £7,500

Deadline: 6 June 2025

Find out more:

Health and Wellbeing in Museums Fund

The Museum Association, funded by the Julia Rausing Trust, are launching a programme of grant-making, networking and learning dissemination for health and wellbeing programmes in museums.

Grants will enable the development and continuation of ground-breaking health and wellbeing programmes in UK museums during a time of financial crisis and increasing demand for services.

The fund is designed to enable museums to build on their existing, leading health and wellbeing work. This means you should have:

• A proven track record for the work you are doing
• A strategic commitment to health and wellbeing at your museum
• A clear idea of how you would like to develop your work

Grant amount: between £50,000 and £75,000

Deadline: Applications open 28 April and close 26 June 2025

Find out more:

Next Level Award by Help Musicians

If you’re a musician with a strong track record but lacking the resources to embark on larger and longer-term projects, then the Next Level award might help.

With a programme of one-to-one business advice and peer support, alongside financial support to help you pursue your opportunity, this is designed to help you take your career to the next level.

The award is open to:

• Working musicians who have made at least 40% of their income from music over the past two years. Musicians with a long-term health condition and/​or disability that impacts their ability to work as a musician will just need to show some income from music within the past 2 years.
• those aged 18 or over, living in the UK, with the right to live and work in the UK and with a UK bank account.
• those who do not have more than £10,000 savings or access to other capital that could fund your planned activity.

The award includes:

• 6 hours of one-to-one business advice from industry experts
• Online meet-ups with other awardees and industry guests
• Up to £3,000 towards your own music activity. 
• Invites to online peer drop-in spaces with other musicians (optional)
• Access to a healthy practice session delivered by BAPAM (optional)

Deadlines:

• Round 2: 2 June - 27 June
• Round 3: 15 September - 10 October

Find out more:

Aesthetica Creative Writing Award

The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award celebrates outstanding writers. 

The Award was launched after the publication of Aesthetica Magazine, as a way to support the next generation of literary talent. These were first published in the Creative Works Annual, a collection celebrating innovative poetry and short fiction from both established and emerging practitioners. Originally, it was an anthology of new writing and new artwork. However, as the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and the Art Prize started to reach more audiences, the decision was made in 2013 to separate them into two Awards with their own prizes and publications.

The Creative Writing Award is open to Poetry and Short Fiction submissions on any theme, however, they are particularly interested in works that reflect upon our ever changing world. Poetry entries must not exceed 40 lines, while short fiction submissions are capped at 2,000 words.

Award: With a total prize fund of £5,000, winners in each category will receive a cash prize of £2,500. Additionally, selected entries will be published in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual.

Deadline: 31 August 2025

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Heritage Crafts' Maker Relief Fund

The Maker Relief Fund is offering grants to UK-based professional craftspeople facing financial hardship.

Grants of £1,000 will be awarded to 50 eligible applicants over the course of a year, starting in November 2024 and running through to the end of October 2025.

These grants are intended to provide flexible financial support, allowing recipients to use the funds without restrictions.

Practising professional craftspeople are eligible to apply if they identify with one or more of the following groups:

• Individuals on low incomes.
• Working-class people.
• Black and ethnically diverse people (including Gypsy, Roma, and Travellers).
• People with disabilities, neurodiversity or those managing chronic physical or mental health issues.
• LGBTQIA+ individuals.
• People with caring responsibilities.

Grant amount: up to £1,000

Deadline: End of October 2025

Find out more:

Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme 2025

People across the UK will benefit from upgraded sports facilities in their local area thanks to £100 million invested by government today.

Working together with the Premier League, The FA and Government’s Football Foundation in England, the Cymru Football Foundation in Wales, and the Football Associations in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the funding is expected to support hundreds of new and improved pitches, changing rooms, goalposts and floodlights to improve access to sport and physical activity for local communities. 

It will be targeted at deprived areas and support greater access and participation levels among under-represented people including women and girls, ethnic minority groups and disabled players. 

The funding will be invested in sites during 2025/26, with £82.3 million allocated to projects in England (including a £2 million uplift of new investment committed in the current financial year), £8.6 million in Scotland, £6.1 million in Wales and £3 million in Northern Ireland. 

Clubs and organisations across the UK are now being urged to come forward and apply for funding. Applications can be made in England via the Football Foundation on an ongoing basis, and in Wales via the Cymru Football Foundation.

Grant amount: up to £25,000

Deadline: Ongoing

Find out more:

Charles Hayward Foundation: Older People Small Grants

Charles Hayward Foundation is a grant-making charitable trust making awards to charities that are registered in the U.K.

Their Small Grant Scheme for Older People programmes will consider funding projects in the following sub-categories:

• Programmes aiming to alleviate isolation and depression in older people, including informal day care or social, physical and recreational activities.
• Programmes which give practical help, assistance and support for older people living in their own homes.

• Programmes addressing the emotional and practical needs of older carers.

• Programmes designed to meet the specific needs of people with dementia.

They wish to fund preventative and early intervention programmes being delivered at the community level which allow older people to stay in their own homes and remain independent. They are interested in programmes which can demonstrate their effectiveness in improving the quality of life of older people. They favour projects that offer a consistent and sustained benefit rather than one-off events or short-lived activities.

Grant amount: up to £7,000

Deadline: currently open

Find out more:

Historic Houses Foundation

The Historic Houses Foundation gives grants for the repair and conservation of rural historic buildings and structures in England and Wales, including their gardens, grounds and outbuildings. They also give grants for the restoration and conservation of works of art in historic house collections open to the public.

Grants are made to owners (charities, institutions, local authorities and individuals) who demonstrate a sustainable and long-term commitment to the care, management and public access of the historic country houses in their care.

They aim to make grants for projects which either do not qualify for funding from any of the mainstream sources or have been awarded only partial funding. They will also consider making grants to kick start a project but will expect further funding to be in place within 1 to 2 years.

Grant amounts: The minimum grant amount is £1,000, the maximum is £250,000 though awards of this size are only made in exceptional circumstances. Most grants are less than £50,000.

Deadline: rolling

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Millichope Fund for Community Buildings

The Millichope Fund, administered by Community Resource, provides small grants of up to £500 to enable village halls and community centres to purchase items of equipment to help meet the needs of their local community.

Examples of things that have been funded previously include:

• Hearing loops or equipment to assist disabled users
• Tables, chairs and other furniture
• Kitchen equipment (eg white goods or crockery)
• Replacement water heaters or radiators
• Curtains, draught excluders and other insulation
• Audio and visual equipment (eg a PA system) and portable staging

The fund cannot contribute to general running costs, staff salaries, volunteers expenses, large capital projects or resurfacing of car parks.

Grant amount: up to £500

Deadline: currently open

Find out more:

National Lottery Heritage Grants

National Lottery Heritage Grants form part of the National Lottery Heritage Fund's new 10-year strategy, Heritage 2033, that aims to invest £3.6 billion across the UK with grants ranging from £10,000 up to £10 million.

The strategy is centred around a simplified framework of four investment principles:

• Saving heritage.
• Protecting the environment.
• Inclusion, access and participation.
• Organisational sustainability.

Grants are available to support projects of up to five years that care for and sustain heritage in the UK. This could include nature and habitats, historic buildings and environments, or cultures, traditions and people’s memories. 

Grant amounts: there are two levels of grants available £10,000 to £250,000 or grants from £250,000 to £10 million

Deadline: rolling

Find out more here:

Paul Hamlyn Foundation's Arts-based Learning Fund

The foundation supports arts and cultural organisations to work in partnership with schools and make arts-based learning a core part of education.

The fund envisions a more equitable school system where high-quality arts-based learning is a core part of all children’s education. They believe that arts-based teaching and learning can add value and help schools achieve their aspirations for pupils.

The fund achieves this by:

• supporting arts organisations to work in partnership with formal education settings leading to a mutual exchange and enrichment of expertise;
• focusing on pupils who experience systemic inequity and enabling them to make progress and overcome barriers to learning;
• exploring the role of arts-based learning in addressing issues of inclusion, especially racism, in education;
• creating more opportunities for high quality arts-based teaching and learning in education settings, especially in those which have not had this work in the past;
• enabling arts-based learning to be embedded in curricula and practice for the long-term; and
• building a body of evidence and practice, and understanding how the work improves equity for pupils.

Grant amount: between £30,000 to £100,000

Deadline: rolling

Find out more:

Shropshire Grassroots Fund

The Shropshire Grassroots Fund aims to increase the availability of grant funding for new start-up groups and those who have been operational for less than 12 months and for small voluntary and community organisations who have been in operation for over 12 months to build capacity and sustainability and support (grassroots groups).  Funded schemes must be located and delivered within Shropshire and predominantly serve Shropshire residents

Grants up to £300 are available to new start up grassroots community and voluntary groups and up to £1,000 for groups who have been in operation over 12 months which have an annual turnover of less than £50,000 per annum.

The Fund prioritises applications for requests which can be demonstrated to have a long term benefit for organisations to help them grow and develop. This can include core costs to help organisations extend their reach to more people, and widen their work.

Examples of the type of request we are keen to fund could include training (for staff and volunteers), volunteer expenses, furniture and equipment, promotional materials, and room hire.

What we cannot fund:

• Contribution to general appeals.
• On-going staff salaries
• Large capital build projects,
• Parties or other one off events.

Grant amount: up to £300 for new groups, up to £1,000 for groups that have been in operation for more than 12 months

Deadline: rolling

Find out more:

Telford and Shropshire Support Fund

Many charities, community groups and not-for-profit organisations have seen the demand for their services and provision increase and access to sustainable funding more difficult to achieve. The cost-of-living crisis has impacted groups resilience in meeting those increased costs and demands and maintaining day-to-day operations is challenging.

The fund aims to help groups to remain sustainable and continue to support their communities. Grants of up to £1,000 are currently available to help groups with core costs associated with their provision.

The Support Fund can be spent on your organisation’s running costs. These might include, for example:

• Management and administration
• Staffing and volunteer costs
• General office expenses
• Accountancy and audit
• Communications and outreach
• Monitoring, evaluation, and learning
• Governance, regulatory, and compliance costs

Grant amount: up to £1,000

Deadline: rolling

Find out more:

Twemlows Fund

If your group/organisation is running projects focused on environmental improvements or community participation, Community Resource have a fund which may be able to help with up to £1,000.

Funding is available for voluntary and community groups across the county of Shropshire with a priority given to those groups within 15 miles of Prees, in North Shropshire.

Grant amount: up to £1,000

Deadline: rolling

Find out more: