09/01/12

By Andrew Holt

A Fund supporting the creation of new social action opportunities has opened its second applications window today.

Worth over £20million, the Social Action Fund managed by The Social Investment Business on behalf of the Office for Civil Society is offering grants of £100k and upwards to projects across England that will expand volunteering and giving of time, money, knowledge and assets.

Successful applications will address the following themes:

Encourage people to come together in their locality to support each other: Projects that scale proven models to regional or national levels, or replicate them in other localities. Some priority will be given to models that encourage those who do not traditionally get involved as volunteers. We are also particularly interested in models that offer people the opportunity to give time and / or money to activities that deliver a public benefit and complement the public sector.

Focus on the different life stages of volunteering. Programmes that target the following will be favoured:

Building a culture of participation among school children and university graduates

Encouraging professionals who have retired or are on point of retirement to use their experience and skills for community/public benefit.

Inspire and support NCS graduates who want to continue contributing to their communities through social action projects.

Preference will be given to proposals that do the most to increase social action, to ideas that are scaling up proven models at a regional or national level.

The Social Investment Business chief executive Jonathan Jenkins said: "We had an excellent response to the first window of the Social Action Fund. The energy and vision of applicants has been impressive and we are pleased to manage a Fund that finances ambitious, life changing projects which really make a difference and bring people together to improve the quality of life in their communities.

"In launching round two of the Fund, we want to hear from people who run successful volunteering and support programmes and know they could have a much bigger impact with additional funding.

"Round one revealed a wide range of projects that are up and running across the country. We are excited to see what projects come forward for the second round. We want people to think big – proposals for projects worth £1 million plus are encouraged."

The second window opens to applications today and will close at noon on Friday 3 February 2012.

The Social Action Fund is open to applications to fund social action projects in England from civil society organisations, public sector bodies and businesses with a track record of delivering social action programmes.

The organisations must have operated for more than two years and have a minimum turnover of £100k.

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