COVID-19 Digital Response Fund

Status: Open to applications

Application Deadline: 20 September 2020

Description

A mix of direct grants and support from digital agencies are available to not-for-profit organisations in England whose work has been affected by COVID-19 for developing the digital capabilities that allow them to continue to deliver essential services.

Details

Fund Value: £ 4,950,000

Maximum Value: £ 60,000

Minimum Value : £ 5,000

Value Notes

Funding of between £5,000 and £60,000 is available.

The funding is a combination of direct grants and payment for support from digital agencies.

A total of £4.95 million is available. This includes around £3.2 million of expert support, which will be provided to organisations along with tools and freely available shared learning resources. Around £1.75 million will be made available in direct grants.

The Fund expects to be supporting around 65 organisations in total.

Extended Description

The COVID-19 Digital Response Fund is provided by The National Lottery Community Fund. The Fund is administered by the Centre for The Acceleration of Social Technology (CAST) with support from the Catalyst network.

The aim of the Fund is to support organisations dealing with the impact of the coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis to develop the digital, data and design capabilities that allow them to address urgent issues and serve the most vulnerable.

Latest Information

The application deadline for the:

• Discovery Programme was 5pm on 7 September 2020.
• Development Programme is 5pm on 20 September 2020. A second application round will open on 26 October 2020.

Key Criteria

Applications are accepted from not-for-profit organisations based in England that are delivering charitable activities to vulnerable communities.

The following types of organisations are eligible:

• Registered, exempt, or excepted charities.
• Community Interest Companies.
• Community Benefit Societies.
• Social enterprises.

To be eligible organisations must be doing work in one of the following areas:

• Connecting with older people.
• Connecting with disabled people.
• Providing advice and support to people who are pushed into crisis.
• Supporting those who are in medical care or end of life care.
• Providing essential items directly to families who are hit hardest.
• Supporting people who experience health inequalities.
• Supporting people who experience loneliness and social isolation.
• Supporting people who experience poor mental health.
• Supporting children and young people to achieve their potential.

Organisations must be part of a formal or informal network of ten or more other charities committed to proactively sharing learnings from the programme within their group. Networks include infrastructure bodies, federated organisations, and other groups.

Priority will be given to:

• User-led organisations: organisations where the majority of the leadership (i.e. at least half of senior team and trustees) are from the communities the organisation serves.
• Organisations led by and for marginalised communities and those most affected by the COVID-19 crisis (particularly Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic; Deaf and Disabled; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender and/or women-led groups).

To find out further information and for details on how to apply please visit Catalyst – COVID-19 Digital Response