Kent Community Foundation is delighted to award eight organisations a share of almost £460,000 from their Kent County Council funded Infrastructure Support Fund.
The Infrastructure Support Fund opened in March with £600,000 from Kent County Council to support charities, community groups and CICs with existing, dormant or new infrastructure projects.
The first awards totalling almost £460,000 have been awarded to, Council For Voluntary Service North West Kent, Funding for All, Imago Community, Social Enterprise Kent, Stronger Kent Communities, West Kent Mind, Charity Mentors Kent and Medway and CAP Enterprise Kent.
Natalie Smith, Director of Grants and Impact, Kent Community Foundation said, “Once we had announced the Infrastructure Support fund, Kent Community foundation ran an open recruitment process for people with a wide experience of the voluntary sector and grant-making, to join the decision making panel. Four external applicants were appointed to sit on the panel with a representative of the fund-holder and Kent Community Foundation chaired discussions and gave appropriate guidance. The panel did an excellent job in allocating this funding to organisations whose projects will have a huge impact on improving infrastructure across the charitable sector.”
To encourage collaboration between the eight organisations who received funding, Kent Community Foundation will host a meeting where opportunities to work together for the benefit of other charitable groups will be discussed.
Cabinet Member for Community and Regulatory Services Mike Hill said, “We are used to seeing the extraordinary front-end work of our Kent charities, community groups and CICs, however this fund supports the important but unseen elements without which it would not be possible to sustain those transformational outcomes.
“This support will allow organisations to evolve and adapt, enabling them to develop fundraising skills and strategy and financial resilience. They can also, access training on governance and policy, mentoring schemes, leadership programmes and vital peer support networks. They will be able to tackle recruitment and retention, serving to strengthen the impact of the voluntary sector in the county.”
Nick Marden, Chairman, Charity Mentors Kent and Medway said, “Charity Mentors Kent and Medway is delighted to be among the organisations receiving an award from the Kent Community Foundation’s Infrastructure Support Fund. This award will enable us, not only to focus on our core activity of providing free strategic leadership mentoring to charities and social organisations in Kent, but also to increase our resources so we can reach out and provide our services to a greater number, and in more communities, than before.”
The Infrastructure Support Fund funding will be allocated in two equal payments. The first will be paid to the eight organisations during June and the second tranche of funding will be allocated in March 2024, allowing the organisations the financial security to forward plan.
To contact Kent Community Foundation about funding for charities and community groups call 01303 814500, email admin@kentcf.org.uk or visit www.kentcf.org.uk/funding
Notes to Editors
The eight organisations that received Infrastructure Support funding –
Council For Voluntary Service North West Kent has been allocated £35,014, for their IMPAKT project which will support 400 beneficiaries across the voluntary and community sector in Dartford, Gravesham and Swale. www.cvsnwk.org
Funding for All, has been allocated £74,374, to help cascade funding and fundraising skills to Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations throughout Kent, so they can be financially sustainable and build in resilience through diversifying income sources. www.fundingforall.org.uk
Imago Community will receive £73,898 for their West and South Kent VCSE Support and Development Programme for the unmet needs of the organisations they support. www.imago.community
Social Enterprise Kent will receive a total of £74,712 for their initiative to give high quality business support and mentoring to VCSE CEOs, SMT and Boards. www.sekgroup.org.uk
£74,750 will allow Stronger Kent Communities to develop a Kent wide leadership and partnership development project, partly replicating and building on models developed in Medway. www.strongerkentcommunities.org.uk
West Kent Mind will be able to use funding of £74,937 for their project in collaboration with Mid Kent Mind to undertake a piece of work to explore the issue of staff recruitment and retention within the social care voluntary sector in West and North Kent. www.westkentmind.org.uk
Charity Mentors Kent and Medway will receive a total of £27,227 to offer strategic mentoring support to charity leaders across the county. www.charitymentorskent.org
CAP Enterprise Kent will use the £24,695 they have been awarded, for their weekly online peer support network which works with up to 80 people each year. www.capenterprise.co.uk
About the Infrastructure Support Fund
The funding for the new Infrastructure Support Fund was provided by Kent County Council and will be awarded to charities, community groups and CICs to support existing, dormant or new infrastructure support projects.
The type of work that the infrastructure fund will support includes the development of leadership skills, including Board development or good governance and policy development, help for collaborative working for back office and mergers, organisational strategy and development projects, support and training for income generation, diversification, financial strategy and sustainability.
www.kentcf.org.uk/news/articles/600000-infrastructure-support-fund-launches-2023-03-10
About Kent Community Foundation
Grant-maker Kent Community Foundation has been finding, funding, and supporting some of the smallest voluntary organisations in the county for over twenty one years. In this time, it has distributed almost £60 million to support thousands of small charities and deserving causes where a modest sum of money can make a significant impact.
They are part of a UK wide accredited network of forty-seven Community Foundations who are committed to improving the lives of local people and communities, particularly the most vulnerable, isolated, and disadvantaged by matching those who want to help, with those who need the help.
Responsible for more than ninety philanthropic funds, Kent Community Foundation is unrivalled in its knowledge of local causes and assists individuals, families, and businesses, who want to help, to establish and administer their own charitable funds.
