Community First is an £80m government-funded programme that will run for four years, until March 2015, delivered by the Community Development Foundation, to fund (including match-funding) people in deprived areas to give their time and expertise to local projects – to raise money, help make their local area a better place to live, and enable future resilience.
Community First consists of the £30m Neighbourhood Match Fund small grants programme for some of the most deprived areas in the country and a national £50m Endowment Match Challenge.
The Neighbourhood Match Fund will use the £30m fund to encourage people in deprived communities to give their time and expertise to local projects, to raise money and help make their local area a better place to live.
The Endowment Match Challenge will mobilise both national and local giving and philanthropy. It aims to raise £100m in donations, which will be matched with £50m of government investment. This money will continue to grow over the life of the programme ensuring a sustainable source of funding for communities in years to come.
The Community Development Foundation (CDF) will work with several organisations to deliver the Community First programme, including supermarket chain Asda. Through Asda’s nationwide network, customers and colleagues will be able to identify local priorities and support local groups through fundraising in store and online.
CDF will also be working with the Community Foundation Network to encourage philanthropic giving to raise £100m from donors. CCLA will deliver the investment strategy, which will ensure income into communities and social investment resources beyond 2015. The Social Investment Business and its parent charity, the Adventure Capital Fund, will help develop social investment propositions for the endowment from 2015.
As part of Community First, people will be encouraged to give time, expertise and goods towards the projects they identify in their areas and the government will match these pound for pound up to a total of £30,000 per area over the four years, helping to stimulate local interest and action. Alternatively people can donate directly to the endowment-match challenge to help make a lasting difference to communities across England.
The Community Development Foundation is moving quickly with partners to get these two projects up and running. Our aim is to start releasing funds for the small grants programme by September. Visit this site or follow us on facebook, twitter and linkedin to keep up with latest developments.
For more information, please email communityfirst@cdf.org.uk or call 02078331772 and press ‘3’ for a member of the Programmes Team.
CDF Community First: LINK
