Community groups 'struggling' to access grants

Community projects in Suffolk are struggling to access grants as the money available reduces and competition for funding increases.

The BBC spoke to organisations who said applying for funding was becoming more onerous and securing money for much-needed projects was increasingly difficult.

They explained many applications met with no response despite time-consuming and complicated processes.

The National Lottery, the largest funder of community-based activities, said there was "very high demand" for its grants which often exceeded the money available.

"Grants are a lot more sought after now than they ever have been," said Jon Betts, a director of The Bank Arts Centre in Eye.

The community interest company (CIC) offers free or low-cost training to children in coding, music, video production, game design, robotics and 3D modelling.

It secured a £20,000 grant three years ago to transform the old bank vault into a training room with computer screens.

But for the last six months the room has not been used as the company cannot get a grant to run the sessions.

"We have applied for a grant four or five times in the last year, every time tweaking our applications, and we still haven't managed to get access to that money," said Mr Betts.

"I have to keep trying, it is just grant applications are very time consuming - they take days to prepare."

Jim Manning BEM is a volunteer fundraiser for Whitton Church and the Whitton Youth partnership in Ipswich. He has raised £1.1m from grants in the last 10 years.

"The professional fundraiser will tell you that they get about one grant in ten and that is their success rate," he said.

"For a lot of volunteer fundraisers they really struggle to get any response."

He said application forms can be too long and confusing with "obscure" questions.

"I can spend seven days a week on the computer filling in applications," he added.

Figures from Suffolk's borough and district councils over the last three years show the pots of money available as grants to community organisations has reduced year-on-year.

Suffolk County Council did not provide figures but a spokesperson said it offered "a significant number of grant funding opportunities" and it had an "ongoing commitment to support initiatives that promote social well-being and drive positive local change".

One of the main other sources of community funding is the National Lottery.

In 2022-23, 29% of applications in Suffolk were successful, compared to 37% in 2021-22.

A spokesperson for the National Lottery Community Fund said: "There continues to be very high demand for our grants which often exceeds the money available.

"We wish we could fund all the great projects that apply to us but, unfortunately, we can't, and we have to make difficult decisions.

"We know this can be disappointing for projects that are unsuccessful in applying to us."

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