The application deadline to Phase Two of Capacitybuilders’ Modernisation Fund Grants Programme has now closed, with over 600 Phase One bursary holders submitting applications.

Capacitybuilders expects to make up to 500 grant awards of as much as £10,000 by the end of the year.

Phase One of the programme enabled frontline third sector organisations to explore the benefits of collaboration and merger as a means of becoming more resilient in the face of the economic downturn.

Phase Two: Grow Together, will award grants of up to £10,000 to organisations who received support under Phase One to progress their plans for collaboration or merger.

Capacitybuilders announced the first 32 Phase Two grant awards in late October, and final decisions on all Phase Two applications will be made in two further stages in late November and early December.

Early indications show that the highest levels of demand for the second phase of the programme is from organisations at the latter stages of their collaboration or merger plans.

The Modernisation Fund Grants Programme is being delivered by Capacitybuilders, as part of Office of the Third Sector’s Real Help for Communities action plan, to help the third sector respond to the recession.