Supporting Rural Communities

Supporting Rural Communities

Webinar

We are holding a webinar for prospective applicants on Tuesday, December 17th at 18:00. To sign up to the webinar and submit a question for our team follow the link here.

Our new UK-wide grant programme

We are launching our UK-wide Supporting Rural Communities grant programme on Friday 10th January 2025. This new differentiated funding will support transformative, community-led initiatives across the UK, unlocking the huge potential for positive change in rural communities. Our aim is to support innovative solutions that will “power up, not prop up” communities, inspiring change and encouraging economic vibrancy.

Organisations can apply for grants of up to £25,000 over a period of 24 months to deliver activities along the themes of:

  • Keeping young people in the countryside
  • Powering up rural communities
  • Increasing environmental sustainability
  • Building emergency resilience in rural areas.

Grant details

Support will be focused on isolated rural areas where the activity is required due to a lack of alternative services. Projects must be community led and show that they actively listen to, understand and respond to the needs of their local community. We are also looking for community organisations that demonstrate one or more of the following characteristics:

  • Working towards a long-term vision
  • Facilitating collaboration/connectedness
  • Demonstrating innovation.

Communities are invited to bid for funding that will create tangible change. This could be a project that generates a new income stream for the local community, or the delivery of training to develop skills opportunities for young people. It could also be activities to increase community awareness and engagement in the local environment, or an initiative to bring the community together to plan for the impacts of climate change.

The RCF is particularly seeking innovative solutions to the challenges facing rural areas. Is there a project that hasn’t been done before that could be replicated in other rural communities, helping to increase the scale of change?

You can view some of the previous projects we have supported along the above themes below.

Who can apply

This funding is available to community organisations, not individuals or private businesses. You can apply if your organisation has an income of less than £500,000 a year and is a:

  • constituted voluntary or community organisation
  • registered, exempt or excepted charity
  • charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
  • not-for-profit company limited by guarantee
  • community interest company (CIC)
  • community benefit society
  • co-operative society

How to apply

We are open for applications from Friday 10th January 2025.

We have a two-stage application process. Initially, you will need to send a short video and complete a simple ‘Expression of Interest’ (EOI) form. These should let us know who you are, what you aim to do, why your project is needed and how it will help your community. You should also set out how the project meets our funding priorities.

View guidance on making a video submission here.

If we feel that your EOI is a good fit with our programme, we’ll invite you to take your proposal to the next stage, by sending us some more details in a full proposal.

Key dates

10th January 2025 – Open for Expressions of Interest

21st February 2025 – Deadline for Expressions of Interest

8th March 2025 – Shortlisted organisations are invited to submit a full application

5th April 2025 – Deadline for full applications.

Successful applicants will be notified in May 2025.

If you have read all of the grant information and would like to discuss your project with us before you apply, please click to complete our contact form.











Example projects previously supported by the RCF

Black Mountains College, Brecon Beacons

Three people with their backs to the camera rake a fieldAn innovative education institution based on Troed yr Harn Farm in Talgarth in the Brecon Beacons. Their work centres around climate action and adaptation, using nature as the classroom. The idea for the college arose from concerns around the impact of climate change on every community, including rural semi-isolated communities. They deliver community-based vocational training and short courses, work with local organisations to strengthen community provision and create new community spaces which are accessible to everyone.

What we liked about it: BMC carried out wide consultation to determine which courses were most needed and works closely with other local organisations to strengthen community provision and facilitate economic clustering. Through their courses they also create new community spaces (orchards, woodlands, gardens, meadows) which are accessible to everyone and are aiming to establish a model circular economy which could be replicated in other communities across the UK.

Countryside Learning Scotland, Perthshire

Countryside Learning Scotland (CLS) are an education charity working to meet the need for outdoor learning in secondary schools. Their project ‘Pathways to Rural Work’ aimed to address the severe shortage of job candidates across rural businesses by increasing career awareness and opportunities for young people in local high schools. The programme included awareness raising, specialist courses linked to the curriculum and local industries, hands on skills and work placements and training for local businesses to enable them to support young people in the workplace. They also delivered CPD training to teachers to equip them to teach rural skills.

What we liked about it: An innovative project that aimed to address the disconnect between businesses, young people and the local environment. This project not only benefitted the young people involved, but also the local economy and community. It had clear scalability and replicability and a multi-faceted approach to addressing an identified need in the local community.

Grizedale Arts and The Farmer's Arms, Cumbria

Grizedale Arts, in collaboration with the local community, turned an old pub into a rural hub creating a local space for creative and business projects to run as well as hosting training events and volunteer placements for local people.

What we liked about it: This project reached a larger number of local people and demonstrated their impact through strong quantitative and qualitative evidence like survey results and testimonials from people using the hub. They went beyond simply purchasing the pub and with the support and involvement of the community turned it into a hub providing a vital range of services for local people. 

Blackhall Mill Community Association, Tyne and Wear

This project developed a how-to-guide and model for setting up their community electric vehicle car club, called a ‘car club in a box’, so that other communities can create their own. Building on research they have conducted, this innovation will accelerate the speed at which they can support the development of new clubs in other communities, decarbonise transport, improve accessibility and strengthen the sustainability of their own club for their community.

What we like about it: They created a model that can be replicated and shared with other rural communities and is highly innovative. As well as improving access to transport in their isolated community, the project is generating an income stream for the community through the sale of their model, ensuring the future long-term viability of the car club, helping to decarbonize transport, and reducing isolation and loneliness through their voluntary driver scheme. This organisation also demonstrates good collaboration and connectedness with others in their local area and identified a clear need for the project within their own community and further afield.

Holy Island 2025: Long-term vision and strategy, Northumberland

This project addressed the significant issues facing the Holy Island community by bringing together local residents to develop a strategy and long term vision for the area. Led by and for local people, this set out a plan for creating a sustainable and positive future where the community and island could thrive.

What we liked about it: The project involved setting up working group meetings for the community to get to know each other, helping create the building blocks for active governance and strengthening community cohesion. Information and evidence documented by the report has since led to successful applications for further funding to explore the feasibility and need for a community housing project and has provided a clear agenda for the island to decide on priority projects to implement and action, helping to secure their long-term sustainability.