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Date updated: 26/09/2023

Where we fund

Grants issued through the Stronger Communities theme will be awarded to projects or services that are being delivered for the benefit of communities or beneficiaries:

  • Within the City of London (the Square Mile – see red boundary on the map below)

and/or

Please make sure that you meet the geographical eligibility criteria before applying. If you are unsure, please get in touch to confirm your eligibility.

What we fund

Your application needs to fit one or more of the following sub-themes:

Developing stronger neighbourhoods and communities

This sub-theme has been developed to actively support local community-based projects within the City of London and its Housing Estates across London. The projects you put forward should enable more people to become involved in their communities and encourage a broader understanding of the diverse needs of these communities. Projects may either promote a higher take up of existing projects or services or encourage new and innovative ones.

Promoting community health and wellbeing

The activities supported through this sub-theme should contribute to the health and wellbeing of communities and should be able to demonstrate positive outcomes that address the Health and Wellbeing priorities set out in the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy

Who we fund

Your organisation must be one of the following:

  • Registered charity
  • Registered community interest company
  • Registered charitable incorporated organisation
  • Charitable company (incorporated as a not-for-profit)
  • Exempt or excepted charity
  • Registered charitable industrial and provident society or charitable cooperative (bencom)
  • Constituted voluntary organisation

If you are an individual seeking funding, please refer to our FAQ below.

Types of grants

Main Grants

A Main Grants scheme is available for requests up to £10,000. Grants of up to £20,000 will be considered in exceptional circumstances if the project takes place over a two-year period. Exceptional grants will be those that demonstrate how greater funding over a longer period will make a demonstrable difference to the community they work with.

Decisions will be made within 12 weeks of the application submission.

Small Grants

If your request is for £3,000 or less, you should apply under our Small Grants scheme. The minimum amount you can apply for is £500.

Decisions will be made within eight weeks of the application submission.

Deadline

Applications for the Stronger Communities grant programme can be received throughout the year. It is a rolling programme with no deadlines.

Your questions answered

To apply for a grant, you will need to complete an online application form and submit this electronically with your supporting documents to the City Corporation's Central Grants Unit.

We will only consider one application from your organisation at any one time.

All application forms should be completed through the City Corporation's online grants portal. Application forms in large print, Braille or audio would be offered to applicants by special request.

Proposals that support individuals can be accepted under this theme. However, if you are an individual wanting to make an application, we ask that you apply for funding through a City-based constituted group or organisation, residents association or a charity who will be able to support and countersign your application and thus have “ownership” of the project.

Should you be a resident on one of City Corporation's Housing Estates and would like to consider establishing a Residents Association (should there not be one already operating in your area), you should contact your local Resident Services Officer, who will be able to provide you all the necessary advice and guidance on how to proceed. Their contact details can be found on your estate page on the website, or you can contact the Resident Involvement team directly.

Your local Council for Voluntary Service would be able to provide you advice and guidance in constituting any other type of organisation.

Once we have received your online application and all supporting documents, it will be passed to one of the City Corporation’s officers for assessment. As part of this process, an officer may contact you for more information.

We will acknowledge receipt of your application within ten working days of it being received. If your application is not complete, it will be returned to you and you will have a further ten working days to send us the missing information.

A Funding Officer may also arrange to visit or call your organisation as part of the assessment process. Once a full assessment has been completed, your request will be referred to an appropriate Committee.

If we fund your project, we will need you to complete an end-of-grant monitoring report to confirm how the grant has been spent and what you achieved. Please make sure that you keep receipts for all the items or services you buy with the grant and that you keep them somewhere safe as we may ask you to provide them.

We may also visit you to check how the grant has been spent.

You will be required to keep us up to date if your project or any of your contact details change at any stage during the period of your grant.

If your application is successful, an initial offer letter detailing the level of grant awarded will be issued. This may contain special conditions relating to the grant award or pre-agreement grant conditions.

Grant acceptance terms and conditions will be subsequently issued which should be signed and returned within 20 working days.

Once all documentation has been received and approved, you would be asked to formally request payment of your grant award.

Note: You cannot start your project until we have received, checked and approved all information that we have requested. 

Due to the limited budget available and the number of applications for funding we receive, we unfortunately cannot provide funding to every applicant that applies for a grant. Grants are therefore issued on a discretionary basis; there is no appeal process, and the decision of the City Corporation is final.

If requested, your assessing officer will be able to provide feedback on why your application was unsuccessful.

We urge all applicants that are unsure about whether to submit an application to read all available eligibility criteria on our website.

If you have an enquiry that is not covered within the online guidance, please contact the City of London Central Grants Unit directly, who will be able provide answers to general queries regarding the application process

You may apply for new funding or to deliver a continuation of the same project; however, organisations cannot hold more than one of our grants at any one time.

If you are a current grant holder, you will need to have satisfactorily met all our grant monitoring requirements before applying again. 

Some things we are unable to pay for are shown below:

  • Activities that have already taken place or start before we confirm our grant
  • Any costs you incur when putting together your application
  • Fundraising activities for your organisation or others
  • Items that are purchased on behalf of another organisation
  • Loans or interest payments
  • Projects that actively promote religious or political activities
  • Purchase of alcohol

Start a new application

Apply for a Main or Small Grant by logging in or signing up for an account here.

Resume an application

Application portal

Need help?

If you would like to discuss your application email the Central Grants Team.

Don't match the criteria?

If you don't match the criteria for the Central Grants Programme, visit the City Bridge Foundation, the Community Infrastructure Levy Neighbourhood Fund or the Trusts and charities pages to see if you are eligible to apply for other projects.