Comic Relief Community Fund for England Opens for Applications

Applications to the 2025/26 round of the Comic Relief Community Fund are now open until 6 October 2025.

Grants of up to £5,000 are available for grassroots, community-led organisations in England with an income of less than £250,000 that support people living in, or at risk of, poverty or hardship.

The 2025/26 funding round will support organisations in England that are:

  • Tackling the immediate and urgent impacts of being in poverty, including providing essential resources like food, shelter, advice and healthcare. For example, foodbanks, community kitchens, homeless shelters, welfare advice agencies and health outreach projects.
  • Working to empower communities to take positive steps to lift themselves out of poverty in the longer term. For example, projects that build skills, increase access to employment, strengthen financial resilience or develop community-led solutions.

Applicants must be based within the area where they are carrying out activities.

The programme offers flexible, core funding, and is designed to support the good work of organisations, and not just projects. The grants can be used on core organisation costs, project costs or a combination of both.

It is anticipated that around 120 grants will be awarded in the 2025/26 round.

Projects must be completed by 30 September 2026.

When assessing applications, Groundwork, who administers the grants programme on behalf of Comic Relief, will take into account the level of deprivation in the area where the organisation is working. Applications from areas that score higher on the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) may be given greater priority.

This will be the only funding round for 2025/2026, and it anticipated that it will be highly competitive.

The deadline for applications is 6 October 2025 (12 noon)

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You will receive a VAC Member welcome pack with useful information on getting the most out of your membership and a few extra treats!

Every member of VAC will be invited to our Annual General Meeting (AGM) and has voting rights for resolutions and proposals either in person or by proxy.

When you sign up to be a VAC Member, you will be assigned a Go-To Contact from the VAC team.

They will be your main point of contact for your membership, helping to answer questions and signposting you to the right place within VAC and/or our partnerships.

We want the VAC membership offer to be responsive to the needs of our members.  Member check ins keep us up to date on your organisation’s news and developments but also on any challenges or support gaps that may be affecting the VCSE sector. 

The information we receive during our member check ins will highlight trends and challenges that we can then explore support and solutions for via our membership offer and partnerships with local providers and authorities.

To support VAC members to feel connected and informed, we have created a unique Member Area on the VAC Website.

The online dashboard will keep you and your colleagues up to date on the latest member opportunities, training and news.

The Member Area also has a forum function, allowing VAC Member organisations to interact and support each other.

A quarterly newsletter to keep our members up to date on not only VAC Membership updates and opportunities but also specifically created content on topics of interest to the local voluntary, community and social enterprise sector. 

The Bimonthly Member Network is for VAC Members to connect with other VAC Members!

A perfect opportunity to support one another, find out about other local services and explore new collaborative opportunities and partnerships with fellow VAC members.

20% Discount on VAC Room Hire – We offer a range of flexible rooms for hire located in Halifax, West Yorkshire. Our rooms include a fully equipped, large training room with SMART board and flipchart facilities seating up to 25 theatre style, two smaller meeting rooms seating up to 12 and a small office with computer facilities suitable for one-to-one meetings or rent-a-desk.

Competitive rate on ID Badge Printing – Competitively priced to accommodate for smaller orders, our in-house ID Badge service supports both design and printing.

Based on feedback and insight we gain from our members, our training and events offer will complement local infrastructure support training programmes.

All sessions are cost effective and VCSE sector driven.