The government announced yesterday that a further £150 million will be unlocked from dormant accounts to help charities, social enterprises and vulnerable individuals during the coronavirus outbreak.
The funding will support urgent work to tackle youth unemployment, expand access to emergency loans for civil society organisations and help improve the availability of fair, affordable credit to people in vulnerable circumstances.
- £10 million will be brought forward for the Youth Futures Foundation to help organisations who support unemployed, disadvantaged young people across the country into jobs.
- £45 million will be deployed by Big Society Capital to allow better access to investment including emergency loans for charities, social enterprises and some small businesses facing cash-flow problems and disruption to their trading following the coronavirus outbreak.
- Fair4All Finance will use £65 million to support affordable credit providers to increase access to fair, appropriate products and services for those struggling financially, providing them with an alternative to high cost loans.
- £30 million will go to Access – The Foundation for Social Investment who will support social enterprises helping people in vulnerable circumstances.
Read the full announcement here.
Further resources and support
- Although loans are available, trustees should carefully consider any restrictions in governing documents, their legal structure and risk of personal liability if unable to meet loan repayments, and whether taking on debt is in the best interests of the charity? Read this guidance from NCVO on Financial Implications.
- For further support with governance queries contact advice@rva.org.uk.
- Also see here for the recent update from the National Lottery Community Fund – Coronavirus Community Support Fund, which opens for applications on 22 May 2020.
- The government has also published this detailed guidance for funding available to the voluntary and community sector. Note that some of this funding is restricted to national organisations. RVA will continue to post specific relevant opportunities on our news page.