Eaga Charitable Trust supports projects that promote a better understanding of fuel poverty and more effective means of tackling it. This includes understanding the causes of fuel poverty, how to prevent it and which groups are most likely to suffer fuel poverty. It also includes how best to target assistance to those in fuel poverty or at risk of it.

They do not support physical energy efficiency measures but they can fund evaluation and promotion of targeted energy efficiency strategies.

As well as funding work that fits their general programme, in 2012 the Trust will also be prioritising applications which address one or more of the following themes:

• Fuel poverty and disability
• Fuel poverty and young children
• The links between fuel poverty and migrant communities
• Real and perceived barriers to the take-up of assistance
• Fuel poverty and the climate change agenda
• Fuel poverty definition and target.

Further details about each theme are available on the guidance notes which you can download from the website.

You can look at details of previously funded projects here.

The Trust want to speak to potential applicants at an early stage to discuss their ideas and whether they are likely to fall within their areas of interest.

You can download an application form here.

Deadline: next round 14 May (decisions late June)
Contact: Dr Naomi Brown, Trust Manager
Telephone: 01539 736 477
Email: eagact@aol.com
Website: www.eagacharitabletrust.org/home

Grassroots Grants funded approximately 19,000 groups in England over two and a half years from September 2008 – March 2011. The Community Development Foundation (CDF) has published the final evaluation.

The press release gives a very short summary. You can download the full report or an executive summary from the same web page.

Website: www.cdf.org.uk/web/guest/news-headline?id=677798

The Give As You Rent Appeal is open for applications.

This is an annual scheme run by the University of Sheffield and the Union of Students to support local organisations working with the homeless, vulnerable and displaced in Sheffield.

Funding comes from students in University accommodation who can opt to pay an additional £6 per year as part of their accommodation payment, that money goes to fund projects.

Applications are considered by a committee of students who decide which organisations receive a grant and the size of the donation. Click here for more information.

Deadline: 24 Feb 2012
Contact: Emma Damian-Grint
Email: emma.damian-grint@shef.ac.uk
Website: www.giveasyourent.co.uk/

The Sheffield Funding Forum for January 2012 has a heritage theme…

Venue: Quaker Meeting House, 10 St James’s Street, Sheffield, S1 2EW
Tuesday 31 January 2012, 10 - 12:30

There will be presentations from Karen Boardman of the Heritage Lottery Fund on their funding programmes and Grace Tebbutt, Community Heritage Worker from Green Estate, on support she can offer to groups on developing a heritage project.

Shahida Siddique from Together for Regeneration will also be there to speak to about project advice and support.

The first presentation starts at 10:30. Free tea and coffee is provided from 10am but people are not supposed to take their drinks into the prayer room where the presentations are held.

There is no need to book, just turn up on the day.

Contact: South Yorkshire Funding Advice Bureau
Telephone: 0114 249 4343
Email: fiag@syfab.gov.uk

You can still have your say on the Rotherham Infrastructure Network Annual Survey….

Voluntary Action Rotherham (VAR) is undertaking their annual survey, looking at the voluntary and community Sector in Rotherham. It should take about 15 minutes to complete online and all responses where contact details are provided will be entered into a prize draw to win £100 for your group.

VAR are undertaking this joint survey on behalf of the Rotherham Infrastructure Network; working with Together for Regeneration, South Yorkshire Funding Advice Bureau, Rural Action Yorkshire, and Rotherham Ethnic Minority Alliance. The information, which the survey will provide, is vital to all these organisations in developing policies and services, in order to represent and support you efficiently and effectively.

You can complete the questionnaire here.

Alternatively, you can request a paper version by contacting VAR:

Deadline: 31 January 2012
Contact: Wanda Steadman, VAR
Telephone: 01709 829 821
Email: wanda.steadman@varotherham.org.uk
Website: www.surveymonkey.com/s/GNKV2YW

Voluntary Action Sheffield are tendering for an evaluation of the work of their South Yorkshire Community Accountancy Service BASIS funded project. You will need to be available from mid March to mid April.

To download the tender document, click here.

Deadline: 6 February 2012

Lincolnshire County Council are tendering for a provider of customised skills and training to support vulnerable young people, aged 16 - 19 (16 - 25 for learners with learning difficulties and disabilities), who are in work, to sustain and progress in employment. You can find details of this opportunity on the Contracts Finder website (see below).

Deadline: 17 February 2012

Website: www.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/Common/View Notice.aspx?NoticeId=402107

They are also tendering for a provider of support to young people, aged 19 - 24, that have learning difficulties and disabilities and are at risk of being NEET. You can find details of this opportunity on the Contracts Finder website (see below).

Deadline: 17 February 2012

Website: www.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/Common/View Notice.aspx?NoticeId=402109

The Baring Foundation has just published reports on some of the work it has supported. If you are working in any of these fields they could help you with information on good practice, and could provide valuable evidence to demonstrate the value of your work:

The outcomes & impact of youth advice – the evidence
The report demonstrates the critical difference that getting good advice can make to young people’s health and well-being. It also highlights good practice, for example, identifying the service characteristics that appear to be most closely related to achieving good outcomes for young clients, including face-to-face advice provided through independent, holistic, young person-centred services.

Creative Homes: How the Arts can contribute to quality of life in residential care
It is intended to celebrate existing good practice in the use of the arts with and for older people in residential care and to inspire more and better work.

An Evidence Review of the Impact of Participatory Arts on Older People.
This independent review pulls together the conclusions of studies into the effects of participating in artist-led creative projects on older people. It concludes  ‘it is evident that engaging with participatory art can improve the wellbeing of older people and mediate against the negative effects of becoming older.’ It explores these impacts in terms of mental and physical wellbeing and the broader effects on communities and society.

All the reports can be downloaded from their website.

Contact: The Baring Foundation
Telephone: 020 7767 1348
Email: baring.foundation@uk.ing.com
Website: http://www.baringfoundation.org.uk/

Help the Hospices has a new one-off Capital Grant Programme to support the establishment of new hospice buildings and start-up costs, such as the equipping of new hospices. It is open to both adult and children’s hospices that are full members of Help the Hospices. The total amount available for the grant programme is £579,000, but no maximum has been set for individual grants. More details on the website.

Deadline: 28 March 2012
Contact: Help the Hospices
Telephone: 020 7520 8200
Email: info@helpthehospices.org.uk
Website: http://www.helpthehospices.org.uk/our-services/grants/uk-grants/one-off-capital-grant-programme/

There is free event in Chapeltown Library for groups, including presentations on selling your project to funders, and the Localism Bill. Rural Action Yorkshire, SYFAB, Together for Regeneration, and Voluntary Action Sheffield will also be there to give advice and information. A poster is available here. You need to book a place.

Venue: Chapeltown Library, Nether Ley Avenue, Sheffield S35 1AE
When: Thursday 9 February, 6-8pm

First Contact: Madeleine Gadsby
Telephone: 01709 309119
Email: madeleine.gadsby@tfr.org.uk

Second Contact: Lucy Atkins
Telephone: 0114 2037153
Email: lucy.atkins@sheffield.gov.uk