OPEN: Women’s Urgent Support Fund Round 2
The Women’s Urgent Support Fund is supported by over £5.4 million of funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, to respond to the cost-of-living crisis. Thanks to National Lottery players, £5.43 million will be awarded in grants to c.100 small, local community organisations led by and serving women, enabling 20,000 women to access vital specialist support services over five years.
Smallwood is pleased to announce that Round 2 of the Women’s Urgent Support Fund is now receiving Expression of Interest forms.
The Women’s Urgent Support Fund Round 2 was co-designed with 9 grant partners from Round 1 who support the priority groups for the Fund and have multiple lived experiences. Taking on board feedback from these sessions, Smallwood aims to increasingly account for the needs of disabled and/or neurodivergent applicants, remain open and flexible in recognition of women’s increasingly complex needs and the current funding landscape, and welcome small, grassroots organisations.
Round 2 will award funding for organisations delivering frontline services that are led by, for and/or serving women with an income of £1,000,000 or less. Grants will enable organisations to respond to the spike in demand of priority basic needs from women who are most at risk of poverty, because of the cost-of-living-crisis.
Funds are available to be spent over three years, helping organisations to both respond to the immediate cost-of-living crisis and strengthen their organisation.
You can view the full guidance notes and Expression of Interest form here.
All Expression of Interest forms must be submitted by 5pm on 21st June 2024.
Similar to Round 1, Smallwood aims to commit at least 50% of the grants to organisations that support women experiencing racial inequality and/or disabled women.
Please email our Programme Manager Rosie Learmonth at grants@smallwoodtrust.org.uk to find out more.
Notes to Editors:
The Women’s Urgent Support Fund is supported by £3,210,000 of funding from The National Lottery Community Fund to respond to the cost-of-living crisis. Thanks to National Lottery players, £3 million will be awarded in grants to 60 small, local community organisations led by and serving women, enabling 20,000 women to access vital specialist support services over five years (2023 – 2028). £210,000 will be used to cover programme and admin costs.
About The National Lottery Community Fund
We are the largest funder of community activity in the UK – we support people and communities to prosper and thrive.
We’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to work closely with Government to distribute vital grants and funding from key Government programmes and initiatives.
Our funding has a positive impact and makes a difference to people’s lives. We support projects focussed on things that matter, including economic prosperity, employment, young people, mental health, loneliness and helping the UK reach NET Zero by 2050.
Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, our funding is open to everyone. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £43 billion has been raised for good causes. National Lottery funding has been used to support over 635,000 projects – 255 projects per postcode area.
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About the Smallwood Trust
The Smallwood Trust has been helping women across the UK out of poverty for 136 years. Our programmes provide grant funding and support to enable women to become financially resilient and to ensure economic systems work for them rather than against them. Half of the UK population are women – therefore our approach not only matters for individual women, enabling them to thrive economically and overcome financially stressful events, it is also critical for the UK economy. While we will continue to meet the immediate needs of women facing financial insecurity, we will also increasingly focus on tackling the systems that cause gendered poverty.
