To see the full eligibility criteria to apply for a SWEF Enterprise Grant, please click here: https://www.swef.uk/eligibility

Grants must be used for costs directly related to your business and must be spent within one month of you receiving the funds.

Applications for start-up businesses at the pre-revenue stage will only initially be eligible for smaller grant amounts (i.e. up to £500), to help prove the business concept and start revenue generation. To be eligible for a larger £2,000 grant, your business must  be turning over at least £500 per calendar month.

If you are awarded a smaller amount, and your initial grant is successful, you may be eligible to apply again for the remainder of the costs (i.e. up to £2,000 total across both grants.).

Eligible costs include:

• Equipment costs.
• Materials/stock for a new product line/service
• Prototypes
• Website/booking system build
• Training
• Product development

These grants cannot be used for:

• Salaries
• Debt repayment
• Rent and utilities
• Materials/Stock for an existing product line/service
• Ongoing software subscriptions
• Developent costs for new apps or digital software
• New computers, tablets and phones.* 
• Invasive beauty treatments, such as botox

*We can consider applications for refurbished computers / tablets / phones; However, in order for this to be considered you will need to explain why the item will transform your business, and provide a link to the refurbished item with an explanation of why you need this piece of specific technology.

PLEASE NOTE - WE CANNOT ACCEPT BUDGETS WHICH DO NOT HAVE EVIDENCE FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL ITEM. ALL ITEMS MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY A WEBLINK / INVOICE/ QUOTE etc.

We particularly welcome applications from groups that are often underrepresented in business ownership, including people on low incomes, women, migrants, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, and people with few or no formal qualifications.

To apply for a SWEF Enterprise Grant, applicants must first submit a brief Expression of Interest form.

Once you have submitted this to us, if you are successful, we will send you a link to complete a full SWEF Application Form. We aim to tell you if your application has been successful within six weeks of your original expression of interest.

At Cheshire Community Foundation, we believe that everyone should be able to access our funding opportunities fairly. We recognise that some people may experience barriers when applying to us. If you need any additional support applying for any of our grant programmes, for whatever reason, please contact us at grants@cheshirecommunityfoundation.org.uk, or by calling 01606 330607. A member of our team will be happy to support you on your application journey, or to find alternative ways (such as paper, video, verbal, online, face-to-face or other methods) for you to get us the information we need to assess your application.

We are happy to talk to applicants about their application before they apply. Just email us (grants@cheshirecommunityfoundation.org.uk) and one of the Grants Team will arrange a time for a phone chat.

Once you have read this page, you can submit an expression of interest form, below. Following this, we will check your eligibility and suitability for the programme. If you meet our standards, we will send you a link for you to fill out a full application form to Submit to SWEF.