Links to other local and national sources of funding, grants and awards for individuals and community groups (mostly related to the arts).
Local
The Churchill Memorial Concerts Trust
The Churchill Memorial Concerts Trust was established in 1993 to expand the range of distribution of the proceeds of the Churchill Memorial Concerts. These concerts were conceived as a means of providing funds for the Music Therapy Charity and continued to do so exclusively until 1993. It was then decided to bring other charities into the net whilst continuing to support Music Therapy Charity, the policy of the Trustees being that the charitable purposes should be primarily (though not exclusively) for Oxfordshire and be of the smaller variety, for which local funding is a crucial element.
Oxford Lieder offers an annual scholarship of up to £1,000 for postgraduate studies in voice or accompaniment at any recognised music college. Applications are invited from anyone who has lived, studied or worked in Oxfordshire.
Oxford City Council
The Arts Development Fund has been set up to provide small-scale project grants (20 - 50% of budget) for the arts, providing matching funding for applications to other funding bodies, including Awards for All and Arts Council England. For individual artists and organisations based in Oxford.
Community Grants for Voluntary and Community Groups
Funding available to help community and voluntary groups, which provide a project or service that benefit residents and communities in the Oxford (including involvement with the arts).
Oxfordshire County Council
Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Capital Fund
Government funding (Youth Matters) for young-person led projects in Oxfordshire which can provide a range of positive activities (including arts) and places to go and things to do for young people. Youth Opportunity Fund is for events and projects, while the Youth Capital Fund is for facilities and equipment, etc.
The Chill Out Fund can add up to £5,000 to projects and facilities involving young people. This matched funding is available to all sorts of organisations that work with young people.
Community Chest Children and Young People
The Community Chest Project is an awards scheme for 5 - 13 year olds living in Oxfordshire to apply for funding for activities, transport or equipment to support any out of school play or leisure activity.
The Community Chest Friends is for groups of children and young people (5 - 13 years) living in Oxfordshire to apply for funding towards a shared project or idea.
Cherwell Valley District Council
Grants for Arts is a scheme intended for larger scale grant aid to professional arts organisations delivering a programme of work within the District.
Arts Awards are available up to £1,000 to support local groups and organisations to develop arts opportunities and are intended to strengthen the vibrant voluntary and amateur arts sector.
South Oxfordshire District Council
Grants (up to £500) for residents in South Oxfordshire (under the age of 25), who have demonstrated a talent in the field of sport or the arts (music, dance, drama, creative writing, painting, sculpture, photography, video production, multi-media and crafts).
Vale of White Horse District Council
The Council has a limited amount of funds available to help organisations which provide a project or service that benefits residents and communities in the Vale (including Art Festivals).
West Oxfordshire District Council
Grants (£50 - £250) to assist individuals participating and showing great promise in the arts in West Oxfordshire. Applicants must be aged 14 years or above.
Grants (£300 - £1,500) to support people achieving excellence in the arts in West Oxfordshire. Applicants must be aged 14 years or above.
Grants (£100 and £1,500) to provide support to local groups in the development of arts opportunities within West Oxfordshire.
National
Art, Film & Multi-media
The Artquest website offers critical engagement and practical support to visual artists and craftspeople, including links to sources of grants and funding.
First Light Movies was set up to fund and inspire the making of short films by young people in the UK aged five to 19 years. There are two main production funding strands available, the Pilot and Studio Award Schemes. There is also support for generating those first film ideas through the What’s the Big Idea? Award Scheme. First Light Movies don’t fund individuals so if you are a young person who wants to make a film with them, you need to encourage your teacher or a leader of an after school club to apply.
Mediabox offers two different types of grants ranging from £1000 to £40,000 to create and distribute youth-led media projects that express young people's ideas and/or views in a creative way. The projects are to be for film, television, radio, online and multi media platforms (13 to 19 years old, in England).
Screen South administer the Regional Investment Fund for England (RIFE) for film projects in the South East of England. RIFE Lottery funding comes from the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) via the UK Film Council. Screen South run various strands and schemes.
The Leverhulme Trust - Artists in Residence
These awards are intended to support the residency of an artist of any kind or nationality in a UK institution in order to foster a creative collaboration between the artist and the staff and/or students of that institution. The term 'artist' encompasses visual artists, creative writers, musicians, poets and other producers of original creative work.
The Leverhulme Trust - Training and Professional Development
Bursaries, scholarships, mentorships and Continuing Professional Development (CDP) awards for for students and post-graduates receiving training in the fine and performing arts (applications from arts training institutions - not individuals).
The Trust can also support Innovative and Distinctive Teaching Activities in the fine and performing arts (for distinguished arts training organisations or registered charities in the UK, which provide world-class training to students in the fine and performing arts).
The UK Film Council was established by the Government in 2000 as a new strategic agency to stimulate a competitive, successful and vibrant British film industry and culture, and to promote the widest possible enjoyment and understanding of cinema throughout the UK. The UK Film Council provides funding for film production and training.
Music
Financial awards for gifted young musicians in financial hardship (age 5 - 18).
General Awards (up to £2500, up to 25 years) dedicated to the improvement of music education with a focus on youth. Includes support for music students in full time education to fund instrument purchase. Bursary Awards of £5000 are also awarded to students at seven music colleges in the UK and Ireland.
Awards to encourage and assist exceptionally talented young instrumental soloists or chamber ensembles who are British Nationals or resident in the UK and whose talent and achievements give promise of an international career. For instrumental soloists (age 15 - 20) and chamber ensembles (age 21 - 27).
Aspiring musicians should look at the various awards and scholarships (summary here) offered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund. In addition to these individual award schemes, the MBF provides an on-line database of other sources of funding called the Funding Wizard. The database lists the various MBF awards, as well as many others, and also contains useful advice and tips for students.
Music for All is a charity whose objectives are to make more musicians, by promoting the benefits of music making, targeting school children, young people, the family and the over-50's through a series of projects. These include, Music for Youth, Learn to Play & Stand, Get Alive, Weekend Warriors and Play It Again.
Oxford Leider is a charity whose objects are the promotion and advancement of education in music and the arts, especially through singing, by a programme of public recitals, an annual festival, schools' projects, masterclasses, participatory workshops with singing, talks, and outreach to the disadvantaged, for the benefit of all sectors of the community in oxford and elsewhere.
The PRS Foundation for New Music (PRSF) is the UK's only independent funder of new music across all genres. Aiming to stimulate and support the creation and performance of new music in the UK, the PRSF is looking to support music creators, performers and promoters who are involved in creatively adventurous or pioneering musical activity. It does this by offering a wide range of funding schemes for new music activity (not for individuals or recording).
The Arbuthnot Music Foundation
The Music Foundation is part of the Musical Instrument Finance Company within the Arbuthnot Banking Group, and provides funding for suitable instruments, tuition, travel, accommodation, education, materials and concerts. This takes the form of grants and loans depending on the applicant’s circumstances and the nature of their needs.
The Countess of Munster Musical Trust
Study awards for composers, conductors, instrumentalists and singers of exceptional ability (18 to 25 years). This website also includes a very extensive:
Organisations providing grants, awards and funding for a vast range of musical activities (e.g. strings, wind, composition, competitions, instrument purchase schemes etc.).
The English Schools Orchestra and Choir
Runs an annual Orchestra Course to provide the opportunity for talented young orchestral musicians and singers, still in full time education, to meet and perform with other similarly talented young people.
The Worshipful Company of Musicians
The Musicians' Company encourages and promotes musical performance and education to the highest professional standards and particularly supports young musicians. Through its administration of charitable funds, the Worshipful Company focuses on helping young musicians at the start of their careers, through the provision of prizes and scholarships, performance opportunities and medals that recognise excellence and achievement.
Wingate Scholarships are awarded to outstandingly talented musicians for advanced training. They are designed to help with the costs of a specific project which may last up to 3 years. The average total award is about £6,500 and the maximum in any one year is £10,000.
Youth Music is the UK’s largest children’s music charity, set up in 1999 to promote and support music making opportunities and to provide advice to children from birth - 18 years, with the least access, including some of the UK’s most disadvantaged young people. Youth Music works alongside the formal and community-based sectors to support music-making and training.
Performing Arts
The BBC Performing Arts Fund (formally Fame Academy Bursary Trust) helps aspiring music-makers and performers looking for a way to get ahead and includes bursaries for instrument and equipment, education, urban music and musical theatre.
For those wishing to become dancers, actors or stage managers then the Dance and Drama Awards (DaDA) are an option. They offer greatly reduced tuition fees and can help with living and study costs at some of the leading private dance and drama training providers. You must be aged over 16 for dance courses and over 18 for acting and stage management courses.
The Government's Music and Dance scheme is aimed at young musicians aged 8 to 16 (on first application) and for young dancers aged 11 to 16 (on first application) with exceptional potential and dedication and who do not have the financial means to access the training they need. The grants are means-tested and an audition will be involved.
The Dolly Knowles Charitable Trust
Charitable purposes especially the support of dancing, drama or music and also the welfare of animals. Address: Haysmacintyre, Fairfax House, 15 Fulwood Place, London WC1V 6AY Tel:0207 969 5550
Lottery Funding and Large Award Giving Organisations
The Arts Council is the national development agency for the arts, distributing public money from Government and the National Lottery.
A Lottery grants scheme for local communities.
Grants for the arts are for individuals, arts organisations and other people who use the arts in their work.
The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation aims to improve the quality of life throughout the UK. We do this by funding the charitable activities of organisations that have the ideas and ability to achieve change for the better. We take pride in supporting work that might otherwise be considered difficult to fund.
The Clore Duffield Performing Arts Awards fund performing arts education initiatives aimed at children and young people (aged 0-18) across the UK. The Awards aim to provide children and young people with opportunities to experience performing arts education at its best. (Applications from organisations - no individuals).
Grant Finding Websites
A directory of funders (mainly grant-making charitable trusts, the various distributors of lottery money, and sports and arts agencies that give grants) and resources (various 'infrastructure' agencies and sites which provide funding information of one kind or another, including funding for students and funding for business).
A straightforward service from GRANTfinder, can help groups and small businesses to find suitable funding.
The Exuberant Trust - Registered Charity No. 1095911
Updated 26 April, 2009