GrantRadar

Buckinghamshire Community Foundation

Rothschild Foundation Grassroots Grants Fund

Grants of up to £5,000 for one year from the Rothschild Foundation, run by Heart of Bucks, for incorporated community groups in Buckinghamshire (excluding Milton Keynes) addressing disadvantage and inequality. It funds work on homelessness, financial hardship, physical and learning disabilities, and mental health and wellbeing, and can pay for project, core or capital costs. Newly registered organisations without a set of accounts may apply; organisations already holding a Rothschild Foundation grant may not. Applications are taken at any time and considered four times a year.

Apply on the funder’s site
You could get
Up to £5,000
no fixed round
Deadline
Rolling
apply any time
Effort
Moderate
full application with documents

Who can apply

  • Not-for-profit charities, Charitable Incorporated Organisations, Community Interest Companies limited by guarantee, and incorporated groups, societies and sports clubs, with an annual income under £1 million
  • Organisations newly registered with the Charity Commission or Companies House that do not yet have annual accounts may apply
  • You must be based in Buckinghamshire (excluding the City of Milton Keynes area), or show that at least 60% of your beneficiaries are in Buckinghamshire
  • The eligibility guidance also requires a governing document confirming not-for-profit status with a dissolution clause passing assets to another charitable organisation; at least three trustees or directors not connected by personal relationship; formally adopted, up-to-date policies on health and safety, equality and diversity, safeguarding (as appropriate) and sustainability; a payment system where the person approving a payment is different from the person making it; and a bank account in the organisation's name
  • Holders of a current Rothschild Foundation grant are not eligible, and anyone with a completed Rothschild Foundation or Heart of Bucks grant must have submitted their end of grant report

What it funds

Solutions that address one of these needs:

  • Homelessness
  • Financial hardship
  • Physical and learning disabilities
  • Mental health and wellbeing
  • Project, core or capital costs, for one year

if the funding is only for a capital project, other parties should also help cover the costs.

you will need to show a clear need and demand for the services you want funding for.

What it will not fund

  • Grants for the benefit of individuals
  • Overseas travel
  • Promotion of religious or political activity
  • Animal welfare
  • Campaigns
  • Repayments of loans
  • Activity that has already taken place
  • Activity that is a statutory responsibility of a public body
  • Organisations holding a current grant from the Rothschild Foundation
  • Uniformed groups
  • Statutory organisations, including town and parish councils
  • Organisations working in Milton Keynes or counties neighbouring Buckinghamshire
  • For-profit organisations or businesses, and CICs limited by shares

How to apply

  1. Check the Rothschild Grassroots Fund eligibility guidance
  2. Register or log in to the Heart of Bucks funding portal and start an application under 'Funding'
  3. Submit at any time; applications are considered after each of four deadlines a year: 22 May, 27 August, 18 November and 27 January
  4. The grants team assesses the application and may ask for more information before it goes to an independent panel
  5. Report at the end of the grant period on how the project went

the next deadline is 18 November 2026, considered in December.

Have ready

  • Latest accounts (or management accounts and/or profit and loss account if you have not yet produced accounts)
  • Bank statement in the organisation's name, dated within the last three months, showing name, address, sort code and account number
  • Governing document
  • Policies: health and safety, equality and diversity, safeguarding, sustainability
  • CIC 36 form (registered in the last 12 months) or CIC 34 annual report, if a CIC limited by guarantee
  • Evidence of ownership or a long lease with permission for the work, if funding is for a building or land

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