Am I Eligible? - Cheshire Community Foundation

Am I Eligible?

The following information should help you decide whether you are eligible to apply for one of our grants. If you have any questions about your eligibility, please

Get In Touch

Cheshire Community Foundation primarily supports small to medium sized community groups and charities in accordance with our Grant Making Principles. We award grants on behalf of numerous donors through a range of different funding streams.

Answering the following statements may help you to decide if you are eligible to apply for one of our grants:

We are a constituted group who have a bank account in our name and a set of annual accounts or income and expenditure each year.

Yes No

Our group has at least three unrelated trustees, directors or Management Committee members.

Yes No

Congratulations! You meet our basic eligibility requirements to apply for funding. Check out our Grants & Programmes page to see which grants you may be able to apply for.

What Else Do We Look For?

We aim to support organisations with a strong connection to the communities they want to serve, who can demonstrate that they have consulted with the people who are going to benefit from the project. We are unlikely to support applicants who have little or no connection with their beneficiaries and/or there is little evidence of consultation. Please also see our Equality and Diversity Policy for our grant making and operational activity here
We want to support projects where it can be clearly demonstrated, at the end of the funding period, what difference the grant has made to the lives of people in Cheshire or Warrington. We are unlikely to support projects where it would be difficult to see or measure what difference the Foundation’s grant has made.
We are looking for projects that will help to bring about a long-term change or make a significant difference to people’s lives. Applications are less likely to succeed if the project has extremely short-term benefit, unless it can be shown how it will address a local issue or improve life in some way for the beneficiaries
We are happy to encourage new ideas, or organisations that are setting up in response to an identified need, but we are unlikely to award funding for start-up costs that are unrealistically high, particularly where the organisation has no track record at all and cannot demonstrate that it has consulted with the people who will benefit.
As a minimum, to apply for a grant from Cheshire Community Foundation you must be a constituted organisation with the following in place:
At least 3 unrelated trustees, directors or Management Committee members (If you are a community organisation, you must have this as a minimum. Registered charities and other bodies’ constitutions may allow for less – in this instance, please contact us prior to making an application).
A governing document e.g. Constitution or Memorandum & Articles of Association.
Accounts or a record of income and expenditure for your group, and sound plans for managing your money (if you are a new group you will need to provide a spending plan or cash flow forecast).
A safeguarding policy if you are working with children or young people (under 18) or if you are working with vulnerable adults.
A bank account in the name of the organisation which requires two signatories on cheques.