Since 2017, Bristol City Council has been using grant investment to tackle inequality across the city.
This grant programme, called the Bristol Impact Fund (BIF), brought together 8 of the council's grant funds to create a new programme.
This programme offers:
- medium and large grants: four-year grant funding to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations in the city
- small grants: two-year grant funding to encourage new ideas and involvement from more diverse communities
BIF1: 2017 to 2021 and BIF 2: 2021 to 2026
The first two rounds of the Bristol Impact Fund (BIF1 and BIF2) provided grant investment to projects that build the power of communities facing disadvantage and inequality in the city, and aimed to:
- increase resilience
- enable social action
- reduce disadvantage and inequality
- improve wellbeing
BIF3: One City, Many Communities, 2026 to 2030
The third round of the Bristol Impact Fund (BIF3) will build on the foundations of BIF1 and BIF2.
BIF3 will prioritise investments into neighbourhood organisations and citywide equalities communities that:
- increase the skills and knowledge held in community
- are aiming to address community-identified priorities through co-production with the community
- aim to tackle inequity
Funding decisions for BIF3 Medium and Large grants have now been made, with projects starting on 1 April 2026.
Details of the decision, including the organisations and projects awarded funding, are available in the published decision record Bristol Impact Fund 3: Medium and Large Grants Decision.
The first round of BIF3 small grants will run from September 2026 to August 2028. The application window closed on 28 April, with funding decisions expected by the end of June.
Since the launch of BIF, 70 organisations have received grants and 7,000 volunteers have been involved. BIF has funded projects that have:
- reduced financial, food and fuel poverty
- tackled unemployment
- improved people's access to technology
- enabled people to better participate in their community
- reduced social isolation
- improved wellbeing
To find out more about the impact of BIF, see these independent evaluations:
Explore past and current funded projects
You can find details of past grants published on the grant funding data page (data.gov.uk).
Download our pdf Bristol Impact Fund 2 project summary 2021 to 2026(235 KB) , for an overview of all small, medium and large projects funded over the past 5 years.
If you any have questions, email investmentandgrants@bristol.gov.uk.