Northern Rock Foundation has announced one of its legacy programmes is to run in partnership between the Northstar Foundation and the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland. The Fund will award grants of up to £50,000 to help local charities grow.
The Fresh Ideas Fund is a grant programme developed by The Northern Rock Foundation to enable voluntary, community and social enterprises in the North East of England to explore new opportunities to help them grow in size, improve long term sustainability and increase their impact, through grants of up to £50,000. The fund has made 64 grants to 60 organisations since 2011.
The Northern Rock Foundation has announced the Fund will continue for the next three years, until 2017, after awarding £3m to a new regional foundation; the Northstar Foundation, to carry on this grant programme. The Community Foundation is managing the Fresh Ideas Fund on behalf of The Northstar Foundation.
This award is one of a number of large legacy grants and awards Northern Rock Foundation is making this year. These are intended to have long term impact and benefit in the region, both to support the sustainability of the VCSE and to have a positive and long term impact on the future of young people.
The Fresh Ideas Fund is looking for ideas that will help applicants grow, explore new ways of generating income and, by doing so, achieve greater impact. They may have plans to develop new social enterprises, support more beneficiaries, spread their work into their neighbouring town, or work with completely new clients. Or they might want to take on a new asset or build a partnership with a like-minded charity. With the Fresh Ideas Fund’s support they will be able to take these ideas to the next stage.
The fund will provide organisations with grants of up to £50,000 to establish whether their ideas are feasible, to pay for expert advice and to cover start-up costs. The aim is to help them to produce the evidence they need to secure the support and investment to make their ideas happen.
Successful applicants will receive expert help and guidance from Northstar Ventures to ensure their proposals are tested thoroughly.
The Fresh Ideas Fund is open for applications on 1 May 2015. For more information on how to apply to the fund please visit http://www.communityfoundation.org.uk/freshideas
