Second round of funding opens for £19m Covid-19 recovery fund

Social enterprises have until Thursday to apply for the second round of £19m in National Lottery urgent grant money amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Social Enterprise Support Fund has been set up to National Lottery funding to help during the health crisis.

This includes helping social enterprises change how they work, make spaces Covid secure and help with financial issues.

It is specifically for organiations that support people at high health risk from the pandemic as well as those at risk of social and financial deprivation.

The first round received 500 applications, with the Fund supporting 180 organisations. So far £5.6m of urgent grant funding has been delivered.

This latest deadline for applications for the second round has been set at 1pm, Thursday 20 August.

The Social Enterprise Support Fund (SESF) has been formed from a partnership between the National Lottery Community Fund, Big Issue Invest, the Key Fund, Community Land & Finance CIC, UnLtd and the School for Social Entrepreneurs.

It is supported by CAF Venturesome, the Young Foundation and Ashoka.

“We are delighted with how the first round of applications for the SESF fund has gone,” said Big Issue Invest chief executive Danyal Sattar.

“70% of our approved funding has gone to diversity-led businesses. We are incredibly proud of this, as we recognise the fund needs to ensure it support all leaders to respond to Covid-19 in their communities.

“We are spreading the funding across England, with 30% across the north, 32% in the midlands and 36% in London and the south east. We will continue to run an outreach programme for the second phase across England and would call on interested parties to get in touch and apply to the fund.”