We are really pleased to announce our largest grant funding round since the launch of the foundation in December 2020. With the help of our newly formed grants sub-committee, made up of trustees Paula Jordan and Sarah Allport, alongside McCarthy Stone colleagues Lucy Colley, Louise Grace, and Natalie Holloway, 20 organisations were recommended for funding, totaling over £93,000. This was our most popular funding round yet, with over 260 applications received.

The final grant recipients are below:

• Shabbat Walk, North London, £5,000 – funding an intergenerational social brunch project, supporting 20 people over the age of 70 across one year.
• Small Acts of Kindness, Herts, £5,000 – Core funding for the ‘Warm in Winter’ gift bags to older people.
• Intergenerational Music Making, Surrey, £5,000 – Funding a three-month community hub in Banstead, engaging with local older people through music workshops.
• Reach Family Project, Bolton, £5,000 – core funding supporting in-person befriending, predominantly for over 75’s referred to the charity in the Bolton area.
• Caraway, Southampton, £5,000 – funding to expand the current dementia café offering in the Southampton area, by adding 3 new venues, principally to cover the costs of a part-time Dementia Community Developer.
• LGBT Hero, South London, £4,896 – funding to support the continuation of a twice-monthly online support group for LGBT members of the community over 65 years old, currently supporting more than 90 people with plans to expand this to 120 in the coming months.
• Mid Suffolk Voluntary Forum, Stowmarket, £4,610 – funding to allow the continuation of a lunch club supporting over 100 older people. Council funding for this has been withdrawn, so our funding will enable this service to continue for a year.
• Place at My Table, South London, £4,800 – funding the ‘Pathways Lunch and Social Club’ run by young volunteers from a NEET background in South London and supporting over 100 older people each week.
• The Together Project, Waltham Forest, £5,000 – a transformative grant that will enable this intergenerational charity to take on its first ever office/warehouse space.
• Canterbury District Volunteer Centre, Kent, £5,000 – core costs funding for an organisation running a range of services for older people in the community, including social transport scheme and befriending, currently benefiting over 500 older people.
• Skerton Community Association, Lancaster, £4,000 – Core funding to support a range of programmes aimed at relieving isolation in local older people.
• Black Country Wellbeing Centre, Dudley, £4,800 – funding a weekly session providing company and a hot meal for over 65’s in Dudley for the next 12 months.
• Time to Talk, Brighton and Worthing, £5,000 – Core cost funding to support the organisation’s Befriending Services for older people.
• Mustard Tree Foundation, Reading, £4,500 – funding the ‘Engage’ befriending programme run by the charity, reaching more than 90 people every week.
• Omega, Shropshire, £5,000 – Core funding to support volunteer recruitment for projects supporting older people through telephone befriending and pen pals.
• Bedford Players Trust, Bedfordshire, £5,000 – funding ‘Timeless Tales’ a storytelling/discussion/music programme working with care home residents, with a focus on those living with dementia.
• Wag and Company, NE England, £4,812 – funding the training, deployment and support of 12 new Visiting Wag Teams (VWG), to visit isolated older people no longer able to keep a pet.
• Bilston People’s Centre, Wolverhampton, £4,665 – funding for a number of activities run in the centre for local older people, including a lunch club, social trips, coffee morning, and exercise classes, in a high area of deprivation for older people.
• PaFoS Parent Teacher Association, Rugby, £950 – a small grant to support a local school’s community work, including the recruitment of more local older people to spend time with primary school children on reading and allotment activities.
• InCommon Foundation, London, £5,000 – Core funding towards the charity’s ‘Connect’ programme that links schools with local retirement homes.

We will be sharing more details on each organisation and the grant funding over the coming weeks and months, but we are really pleased and excited to be working with some wonderful grassroots charities doing great work in their community for older people.

The Foundation would like to thank all the charities who applied for taking the time to get in touch and share more about their organisation. We will be announcing a further three grant awards in the coming weeks, which will be disbursed in early 2023. We will also be launching our ‘Connections at Christmas’ funding pot, with grants available up to £1000 for grassroots groups engaging isolated older people this Christmas. There will be £20,000 available, and we expect applications to go live online in the next two weeks. Our next Community Grants Programme is scheduled to open for Expressions of Interest in late January, with funds awarded around the Easter holidays. Please do check back here for more information.