Charities desperate for funding

A £5m fund has seen applications totalling over £40m after receiving more than 5,000 applications.

The Charities Aid Foundation launched its emergency fund on 30 March but was deluged with the huge number of application within a week.

It said the new fund would offer grants of up to £10,000 to small charities, non-profits and social enterprises with annual incomes of less than £1m that are struggling amid the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nearly all applications it had received were from registered charities.

CAF said that it had paid out grants totalling about £1m to 256 UK charities. It hopes to be able to attract further investment and reopen the fund to applications at a later date.

Monica Brown, head of charity advisory and programmes at CAF, said: “I am pleased to see that we have been able to get more than £1m in help to charities in a matter of weeks and it is our plan to grow this fund so that we will be in a position to help more small organisations to continue to deliver vital services in the weeks and months ahead.”

CAF said the new fund would offer grants of up to £10,000 to groups including charities and social enterprises with incomes of less than £1m.

It said in a statement that, although the fund was worth an initial £5m, it expected further contributions to be added.

The fund was open to registered charities, community groups, social enterprises and other organisations with charitable purposes.

It said it aimed for grants to be paid to successful organisations within 14 days of application.