Grants for voluntary and community organisations
Grants for voluntary and community organisations
The Bristol Impact Fund
From July 2017 we brought a number of the council’s grant funds together to form a new Bristol Impact Fund.
We used our new grants processes to decide how to allocate the Bristol Impact Fund and we are supporting 70 voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations to deliver 49 different projects to reduce disadvantage in the city.
To find out what organisations and projects we fund and what the council has grant funded in the past, see our Published information about our grant funding.
The Bristol Impact Fund offered two funds:
- medium/large BIF grants, funding projects for 4 years, from July 2017 to June 2021
- small BIF grants, funding projects for 2 years, from July 2017 to June 2019
New small BIF grants fund for 2019 to 2021
We're now taking expressions of interest for the second round of small BIF grants.
You can apply for:
- 2 years of funding for a new project
- an extra 1 year of funding for a project that received funding in the first round of small BIF grants, to help make that project sustainable
How much you can apply for
You can apply for £2,500 to £10,000 per year, per project, up to a maximum of £20,000 over two years.
The total grant fund available for the two years is £313,020.
How to apply
There are 3 steps to apply for a small grant application.
Step 1: 1 July 2019 to 26 July 2019
Expression of interest: download and fill in the small grant form (word doc, 257KB) (opens new window) to tell us you're interested in applying for funding.
Step 2: 1 September 2019 to 14 September 2019
We’ll invite you to come and tell us what you want to apply for. After this meeting we’ll send you a feedback form (pdf, 172KB) (opens new window) .
Step 3: 25 September 2019 to 12noon Monday 14 October 2019
If we want to find out more, we’ll ask you to fill in an application form.
- Application form for new projects: (pdf, 312KB) (opens new window) we'll assess the application using a new projects appraisal form (pdf, 323KB) (opens new window)
- Application form for further funding (pdf, 314KB) (opens new window) for previous recipients of a BIF small grant: we'll assess the application using a further funding appraisal form (pdf, 308KB) (opens new window)
Read guidance on how to apply (pdf, 736KB) (opens new window) .
If your application is successful
If you’re successful, you’ll get funding from 1 December 2019
New projects will get funding until 30 November 2021.
Projects that were funded in the first round of small BIF grants will get funding until 30 November 2020.
Baseline standards
We've developed a set of baseline standards to safeguard our investment in the voluntary and community sector. This will also ensure that all council funded organisations are well managed and provide good quality services.
Further information
Our approach to grant funding is explained in the VCS Grants Prospectus:
- VCS Grants Prospectus full colour version (pdf, 2.9MB) (opens new window)
- VCS Grants Prospectus printer friendly version (pdf, 484KB) (opens new window)
Information about the council’s arts and culture funding is available from the Arts and Culture Funding webpages.
The Bristol Impact Fund was used as a case study by the Institute for Voluntary Action Research to develop a framework for place-based funding approaches.
If you have questions, email investmentandgrants@bristol.gov.uk.