The Community Chest

Applications are welcome from any voluntary or community organisation that is based, or works in, our trading area across the south of England, from Devon to Kent and north to Bristol, Swindon, Bracknell and London.

Grants or funds raised could be used to support the following:

• Youth work and activities
• Pre-schools and extracurricular school activities
• Elderly and people with disabilities
• Health and social care
• Local arts and culture
• Conservation and the environment

Please note: Applications will not be considered from national organisations or those that are profit making or political.

The application process for 2020 has now closed.

General enquirers can be submitted to the following email:

[email protected]

Groups can apply for grants or fundraising support ranging from £500 and £5,000 to help achieve their aims. These grants or fundraising commitments could be used towards things such as equipment and furniture, training, transport, professional assistance, specific project resources or operational costs that will help your cause.

Top Tips for a Community Chest Application:

• Make sure that there is a real NEED for what you are applying for.
• Show the judges that your organisation has made its own effort to raise funds.
• Ensure that a Community Chest award or Pub Charity Partner’s fundraising efforts will make a difference to your project in the immediate future.
• Be sure to check that the timing of your event/project fits with the Community Chest cycle (awards made in October) or our Pub Charity Partner fundraising payments (bi- annually in July and January).
• Please don’t apply if you are a fundraising charity that donates to other charities.
• The Community Chest is only open to local voluntary organisations, sadly we cannot help national charities.
• Please give a detailed a breakdown of your project’s cost.
• Identify your local H&W pub, by visiting the ‘Our Pubs’ page on our website.
• Finally consider if you are applying simply for a Community Chest grant and/or you are applying to be a Pub Charity Partner with one or more of our 53 managed house pubs.

Each judge has their own criteria, but organisations should ask themselves the following questions:

Need
Is there a real need for this project?
Does your project or organisation really improve the lives of local residents or is it nice to have?

Own Efforts
What efforts have you made to help your own organisation?
How much money have you raised for your project or organisation?

Difference
How much more money is needed to make the project a reality?
Will a contribution of up to £5,000 enable the project to happen?

Completed applications to be a Pub Charity Partner will be distributed to our managed house pubs for the General Manager and their teams to vote who their pub will fundraise for. This partnership will be for a minimum of one year. Fundraising partnerships will be confirmed once pubs reopen and team have been able to vote.

Applications for a Community Chest grant will then be reviewed by a team of judges. With around 200 applications to assess, judges will be looking for organisations that have demonstrated that they have a real need, have begun to fundraise themselves and that any money awarded will make a difference. The judges will focus on small awards of £1,500 and under, with a handful of large awards. The large awards will be shortlisted for a judges’ visit and the small awards will be judged on the merit of their application form only.

All Pub Charity Partner applications will be notified as to whether they have been successful in securing a fundraising partnership once pubs are open again and team have been able to vote.

All Community Chest grant applications will be notified of the outcome of their application by the end of September 2020.  Successful organisations will be invited to attend an awards evening held in Dorset and West Sussex in the Autumn.