in your area. For example, the Len Pick Trust (
lenpicktrust.org.uk) provides funds for the general benefit of the townspeople of Bourne, Lincolnshire, while the John James Bristol Foundation (
johnjames.org.uk) makes grants to charitable organisations working for the benefit of Bristol residents. To find your local community
foundation, put your postcode into
ukcommunityfoundations.org/ our-network
Think outside the box Discover local grants for your county
at
pta.co.uk/local-ptas. Our list includes many sources you might not have thought of – from a cricket foundation in Herefordshire to a book fund in Northamptonshire and a museum service in Lancashire. Industries which have an impact
on the local environment often have funding set aside to benefit communities affected by their activities, so contact your local landfill site, airport, wind farm or solar farm. Manchester Airports Group, for example, contributes £100,000 a year to its community fund. It accepts applications four times a year for grants up to £3,000. Even crime can pay – as Halsford
Park Primary School in East Grinstead discovered. They were awarded £500 for a rainwater harvesting system by Sussex Police’s Property Act Fund, which distributes funds raised from the sale of confiscated property.
The reader volunteer scheme at St Matthew’s Bloxam CE Primary School
‘How we’ve benefitted from local grants’
It’s worth seeing who’s in your local area that could help. When the retirement home developers McCarthy Stone decided to build a complex 100 yards from our school, we applied to their community foundation and got £950 towards projects that involved older people. We spent £350 on new books for
a reading scheme where retired volunteers come into school to read with the kids. The rest went towards our allotment scheme, where older people come in to help with projects such as building a hedgehog house. We’ve also got a cement works
down the road, and we’re applying for a £5,000 grant from them for our Key Stage One Playground. It’s good PR for those businesses. Lots of companies, like banks and insurance firms, offer match-funding schemes. If you’ve got anyone at your school who works for a local branch, get them
to apply – it’s a way of doubling your takings at events. We’ve got money from Asda in the past and we’ll be applying to Persimmon Homes at Christmas. A problem PTAs often face when applying for grants is the requirement for a wider community benefit. As part of our McCarthy Stone grant, we’re planning a community-wide sunflower growing competition and hoping to do a reading visit to a local care home. It’s essential to show how your
project fits the aims of the grant funder. We received £850 from the Asda Foundation’s Better Start programme, which focused on mental health and diversity, when we needed library books that better reflected our school’s changing population. Glyndwr Spence, PTA grants secretary at St Matthew’s Bloxam CE Primary School, Rugby (215 pupils)
Halsford Park Primary School was awarded a grant from Sussex Police’s Property Act Fund
38 SPRING 2023
pta.co.uk
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