The Earley Charity has launched a new capital grants programme for 2025. The Building for the Future programme has a budget of £250,000 and is open to local organisations that work in or predominately serve the Earley Charity’s area of benefit*. By Capital they mean bricks and mortar such as new builds, extensions and large-scale refurbishments. The Trustees intend to support a number of projects through the programme and are happy to accept bids for either full or part funding. They are particularly interested to hear from organisations that have not received funding from the Earley Charity before.

Eligibility criteria:

To be eligible you must be able to demonstrate the following:

• your organisation works in or predominantly serves the Earley Charity’s area of benefit;
• you have confirmed planning permissions in place;
• your project is due to start and/or complete between now and the end of 2026.

How to apply

In the first instance they are seeking Expressions of Interest from local organisations that have well-developed plans for a distinctive capital project which may be supported through this programme.

If you have a significant project that meets the above criteria, they would like to hear from you and invite you to submit an Expression of Interest. This should be no more than two sides of A4 plus a single page visual representation, eg architectural plan/drawing or artist’s impression (no other appendices, please) and must include the following information:

• a brief outline of the project and the benefits it will deliver;
• project start and end dates;
• current project status;
• the overall project budget and details of funding/financing already secured;
• the amount of funding still required and how much you are requesting from Earley Charity;
• details of any funding applications submitted and pending a decision, as well as applications planned but yet to be submitted;
• and, if appropriate, a list of major project partners and actual/potential co-funders.

Please mark your Expression of Interest BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE 2025 and email it to ec@earleycharity.org.uk

Is there a deadline?

Yes, the deadline for submission of an Expression of Interest is 12:00 noon on Friday 20 June 2025

Next steps

If there is potential for funding, you will be invited to give a short presentation on your project to The Earley Charity trustees early in the week commencing Monday 21 July 2025. Please note that you will be required to provide additional documentation (including formal legal documentation) on the day.

Trustees will then shortlist the projects to determine which go forward to the next stage with final decisions expected to be taken by the end of August 2025.

*Area of Benefit:

In practice, this means all of Earley (Lower Earley and “old Earley”), the northern part of Shinfield, Winnersh, south Reading (including Whitley), east Reading (including Newtown), central Reading (as far west as the Reading West railway line), Sonning and lower Caversham. Please see our website for a detailed map. 

Support from RVA:

If you would like free, confidential advice and support with your application, please contact Herjeet Vass at RVA on info@rva.org.uk or telephone us on 0118 937 2273. You can see our full range of support here: RVA Advice Service.

You may also be interested in attending our Community Buildings Forum – held twice per year with the next one to be held on 1 April 2025. You can read more and book your place here.