Am I Eligible?
It is important that you read our eligibility guidelines below before you think about applying to make sure that you meet the criteria for a grant.
If you have any questions about the criteria of any of the funds, please email the grants team grants@cumbriafoundation.org or call us on 01900 825760 and we will be happy to help.
We make grants to a wide range of organisations. We are particularly keen to help grassroots community groups and small-to-medium-sized voluntary organisations. We do not normally make grants to large UK-wide charities, but we might do so where there are strong relationships in our area and the proposal has the potential to achieve a substantial impact.
We want to ensure that our funding is distributed across our priority areas and reaching communities in greatest need by prioritising organisations that are addressing current issues, e.g. supporting people to address financial concerns, helping people move towards training and/or employment, helping people rebuild their lives following a crisis, supporting interventions to reduce harmful behaviours and services that improve health outcomes. We prioritise funding the delivery of services directly to beneficiaries, over capital build requests.
You do not have to be a registered charity to apply, but the work you ask us to support must be legally charitable.
The table below shows the requirements that must be met before considering an application:
| Volunteer-led organisations, registered charities and CIOs must: | Social enterprises, Community Interest Companies (CIC) and other companies must: |
| • Have a management committee with a minimum of three unrelated members | • Have a management committee with a minimum of three unrelated directors. The majority of directors should be unpaid. Salaries for paid directors must be approved by non-executive directors and be proportionate. Directors should have equal voting rights. |
| • Have a bank or building society account in the name of the organisation/group, with a minimum of two unrelated bank signatories. | • Have a bank or building society account in the name of the organisation/company, with a minimum of two unrelated bank signatories. |
| • Provide a full set of signed annual accounts. If income is over £25,000, an independent examination is required. | • Provide a full set of management accounts (not abridged versions), including income from trading and grant funding. |
| • Have charitable aims, evidenced by the governing document. | • Have clear charitable purposes and a defined social benefit, evidenced by Articles of Association and community benefit statement. Please also supply your CIC 34 report (if this has been made available). |
| • Provide evidence of good governance practices and sound financial management including being registered with the Charity Commission, Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) or other governing body, depending on the size of the organisation, and a full set of annual accounts is required. | • Provide evidence of good governance practices and sound financial management, including having a recognised status (e.g. a company limited by guarantee), and be registered with the necessary relevant body (e.g. Companies House, CIC regulator), and a full set of annual accounts is required. |
| • Register with the Charity Commission if your charitable organisation is based in England or Wales and has over £5,000 income per year. | • Ensure an Asset Lock body is named and has objectives both charitable and similar to the CIC, ensuring benefit to the community. |
NB: We will ask you to provide evidence of the above as part of your funding application. For most funds, you can apply whatever your income level. Some funds may have more specific requirements about the size and type of organisation eligible.
Additional Requirements for Social Enterprises
The table below outlines the additional requirements that social enterprises must meet before an application can be considered for our general funds. These requirements came into effect on 1 April 2025. Please note that some donor-advised funds may not require all of these additional requirements to be met. If you are applying to a specific fund, we recommend speaking with a member of the Grants Team to confirm the requirements before submitting your application.
| We will consider applications from the following types of social enterprises: • Community Interest Companies (CICs) • Private companies limited by guarantee or shares • Co-operative societies • Community benefit societies | To be eligible, social enterprises must: • Be within their first two years of trading, or have two sets of accounts available (for start-up support), or Demonstrate that: • At least 30% of current income is from trading (if under 5 years old) • At least 50% of current income is from trading (if over 5 years old) • Provide a business plan or evidence of a plan of how the CIC will generate income | We prioritise funding for: • CICs Limited by Guarantee (CLG), due to their alignment with charitable models • New projects, service expansions, or initiatives that reach new audiences • High-impact continuation projects with clear sustainability plans | We do not fund: • Core operational costs (except in cases of strong demonstrated impact) • CICs with fewer than three unrelated directors • CICs where one or two directors hold significant control or financial interest |
Existing Grantees
Existing grantees that are social enterprises may reapply under the previous eligibility criteria; however, we expect to see an increase in income from trading and for applicants to meet the current eligibility criteria if reapplying.
Please note: if you have previously had a grant from us:
- We will not consider any new application unless you have submitted any outstanding end of grant monitoring reports.
- Applicants must speak to a Grants Officer before applying if they have been successful with three or more applications in the last 12 months.
- Ideally, grants from CCF should not contribute to more than 50% of an organisations income.
General Requirements for all Applicants
What we will fund:
- Projects where the majority of people who will benefit are disadvantaged
- Groups working with children where the majority are disadvantaged or have special needs
- Groups with 12 months or less running costs in unrestricted reserves
- Groups operating within the county of Cumbria (Except Beckburn Windfarm and Cumberland Building Society Community Fund – please refer to the fund pages for the full area of benefit)
- Groups with a registered address and/or local voluntary management committee or Board of Trustees in Cumbria (Except Beckburn Windfarm and Cumberland Building Society Community Fund – please refer to fund pages for the full area of benefit)
- Core costs and overheads for your organisation
- Salaries and equipment purchases
- Capital projects that meet our fund criteria
What we won’t fund:
- Animal welfare
- Contact boxing, except where donor-advised
- Businesses and personal profit
- Deficit funding
- General large appeals
- Medical research and equipment, except where donor-advised
- Activities that are normally the responsibility of central or local government
- Awards from the same fund in a 12 month period
- Projects that duplicate an existing service in an area
- Fundraisers, appeals and fundraising events, including fundraising consultants
- Advancement of religion including buildings solely for religious purposes, except where donor-advised
- Party political activities
- Retrospective funding unless through a disaster appeal
- Purchase of a vehicle, except where donor-advised
- Groups or individuals who have not returned their monitoring form
- Beautification projects, except where donor-advised
- Gifts for participants e.g. presents, commemorative items
- Theatre production costs, unless where donor-advised
- Youth organised trips and expeditions unless individuals meet the eligibility criteria of a fund
- National organisations that do not have a local presence within Cumbria
