New project funding

Funding for brand new projects that have genuine community need and a real impact on improving community wellbeing.

We expect to be able to support around 45 projects each year.

 

Photo by Warwickshire Search and Rescue

Our Fund aims to support the wellbeing of communities in the Severn Trent region. We want to fund new projects that link to three key elements of community wellbeing - People, Place and Environment -  and we’re really interested in projects that cover all three:


And of course, being a water company, naturally we’d love to see applications for projects that have a connection to water too (although this isn’t essential). Some examples might include improving access to and caring for rivers, installing grey water recycling, or creating sustainable drainage (SuDS) and water efficient green spaces.

We’ll consider both capital and revenue projects, as long as the project has plans to be sustained beyond our initial investment.

To give you an idea of the types of projects that are funded, take a look at our annual reviews and our map of projects we’ve funded so far.

Funding available

There are two sizes of grant that you can apply for:

Each grant size has a different set of questions, so please make sure you select correctly in the application.

Severn Trent must be the majority funder of the project, so you’ll need to be applying to us for over 50% of the total project cost.

Whilst match funding isn’t mandatory, it does helps us spread the support of the fund wider. Match funding could be from your reserves, from other funders or in-kind goods or services. If your project involves match funding, you need to have this secured before you submit your application.

Check your organisation's eligibility for funding

You can apply for a grant if your organisation:

The proposed project must be located in the Severn Trent region and the community it is benefiting must be Severn Trent customers. Our catchment region stretches across the heart of the UK, from the Bristol Channel to the Humber, and from the West Midlands to the East Midlands.

You can check if your project is in our region using the map or Water UK’s water supply postcode checker.

If your project is located in the HafrenDyfrdwy region, please see hdcmyru.co.uk/communityfund for available funding.
 

 

 Provide at application stage Provide at grant offer stage

Legal Structure

A legal structure that is appropriate to the size and nature of the organisation, set out in a constitution or memorandum/articles of association that clearly outlines the aims and rules governing the organisation.

This should include not for profit status, application of income and a dissolution clause/asset lock.

 Yes --

Accounts and Financial Management

Full accounting records which are appropriate to the size and nature of your organisation:

  • New organisations—you will need to provide a projected income and expenditure forecast. This must include all secured and expected income (such as other grants) and expected expenditure.
  • Organisation with income less than £25k—a basic document highlighting income and expenditure and any balance sheet items.
  • Organisation with income over £25k but less than £1m— accounts that have been reviewed by an appropriately qualified person (this is not deemed an audit).  Audited accounts will be needed if total assets (before liabilities) exceed £3.26m and the organisation's gross income is more than £250k.
  • Organisation with income over £1m— externally audited accounts. This is likely to be a reasonable-sized document with a detailed Trustee or Directors’ report and notes to accounts.
 Yes --

Bank Statement

A recent bank statement (dated within the last three months) to confirm where the grant if awarded will be paid. The name on the bank statement must be your organisation’s legal name and match the name on your application.

The statement must include your bank’s logo, the address where the statement is sent to and the account details must be clearly visible. Transaction listings and redacted statements are not acceptable.

 -- Yes

Bank Account Signatories

Bank Account with at least 2 signatories for joint authorisation (not related or living at the same address).

 -- Yes

Project Consent Form/Lease agreement or deeds (Capital works)

If your project is making any physical change to your surroundings, we will ask to see your property deeds or lease agreement.

If your project is being completed on leased land the landowner must complete the project consent form. This form is available on our website and through the application portal. Please note, we require a minimum remaining lease term for the different grant requests:

  • £2k to £20k - 2 years
  • £20k to £50k – 5 years
  • £50k to 100k - 10 years

If your organisation is only able to have a rolling annual lease, for example allotments, for applications under £20,000 we may be able to accept written confirmation from the landowner that your organisation is able to lease the land for the above terms,. This will be reviewed on a case by casebasis.

If your project will be on third-party land, please contact us to check your project is eligible. A project consent form is required if we confirm your project meets our eligibility criteria.

 Yes --

Planning permission

If any aspect of your project involves a change to an indoor or outdoor space, or activities will be taking place outdoors, you may need to get planning permission.

Make sure you read the UK Government guidance to check whether you need it or not. If planning permission is needed, you will need to have received this before applying to us.

 Yes --

Policies and Procedures

You will need to ensure you have policies and procedures in place relevant for your organisation.

If you are unsure,you can get help from your local infrastructure organisation or online sites such as the NSPCC.

 Yes - Confirmation only If requested

Insurance

Organisations must ensure that appropriate insurance certification and licences are in place.

For example, public liability, professional indemnity (where appropriate) and employer’s liability. 

 Yes - Confirmation only If requested

Check your project's eligibility for funding

Here is a list of our eligible and ineligible costs – if you are still unsure or if a certain project cost is not listed here, please get in touch with our team by emailing communityfund@severntrent.co.uk
 

*Why we can’t fund water fountains

For water quality reasons we prefer to promote Refill points at local bars and cafes across our region, where we know that they will be kept hygienic and we can keep our customers safe. Find your nearest Refill station here.

Including Value-added Tax in your budget and application

You may need to pay VAT on purchases made as part of your project and we can pay for this within the grant. Make sure you check whether VAT needs to be included when you develop your budget. The amount of funding you request should only include VAT where you don’t intend to, or can’t, recover the VAT at a later date. If you later find that VAT claimed under the grant becomes recoverable, you must repay this amount to us.

Our Community Fund is always open for applications and our Customer Panel who ultimately make the decision on which projects are funded, review applications for new projects every 6 months. If you are aiming for review at a specific panel, please try to submit your application in good time. If we need more information about your project and the application has been submitted close to the deadline, there may not be enough time to help you gather this. In such cases, we may need to delay the consideration of your application to the following panel.

We can’t allow grant money to sit untouched, so your project must start within 6 months of the grant offer date.

We can only accept one application from your organisation each year.

Panel Submit your application by We'll let you know the outcome by
April 2025 Friday 28 February 2025 1 May 2025
October 2025 Sunday 31 August 2025 1 November 2025
Panel Submit your application by We'll let you know the outcome by
March 2025 Friday 31 January 2025 1 April 2025
September 2025 Thursday 31 July 2025 1 October 2025

Once you have checked your organisation and request is eligible, and read all our guidance, you are ready to get started.

These are the steps you’ll need to follow:

Internal Review

Once you have submitted your application, your application will now be with our internal team for initial review.

The team will assess and score your application against the following criteria:

Our Customer Panel is made up of volunteers, so they aren't able to review an unlimited amount of applications. If we get a lot of fantastic applications that score highly, your application will be compared with others in the same round and only the very strongest applications will go forward to the Panel for consideration. 

At this stage, if your project is ineligible or not the strongest fit for our criteria, we’ll let you know that your application will not be progressing any further.
 

Customer Panel Review

If your project passes our internal review, we’ll take your application to our Community Fund Panel for a final decision. This is an independent Panel made up of our customers, so ultimately, it is our customers who decide where our money goes.

Our Community Fund is hugely popular and so, whilst we’d love to, unfortunately we simply can’t fund every application we receive.

While you can’t appeal a Panel decision, we will provide you with reasons why it was unsuccessful, and you are welcome to reapply to the Community Fund with a different project in 12-months time. If you want to re-apply, please take the time to understand why your application was not successful and have a chat with us first. We really would not want to disappoint you again.

Our Fund Officers are always available to discuss further applications with you.

Congratulations, the Panel has approved your funding and your application has been successful.

Accepting our offer

At this point, we will notify you that you have been successful and that you need to log onto your grant portal to view your Grant Offer letter.

There are three things you need to do before we can give you the funding:

For large grants, this the point where we will discuss and agree a payment structure with you.

Please complete the above within seven days of receiving your offer letter to avoid any delays. Your offer will be subject to a final financial check.

If you have any queries or concerns regarding this offer letter, please get in touch withthe team by emailing communityfund@severntrent.co.uk.
 

We pay grants by BACS transfer into your organisation’s bank account.

Our payment structure depends on how much you are awarded:

The first payment will be made following acceptance of the application when we’ve received any additional required documents, as detailed in your offer letter.

Any additional payments will be made once we receive a satisfactory interim report and/or are shown satisfactory overall progress against your key milestones and objectives.

We’ll release any retained amounts once we receive a satisfactory End of Project report.

Provide us with reports and updates on your project

We can’t wait to hear how your project is progressing and see it completed, so there will be some required monitoring.

We expect all successful applicants to provide us with an End of Project report, and maybe at least one interim report, both of which we’ll provide you with templates for. Information required includes:

For the bigger grants, we will likely ask for multiple reports.

Your Grant Agreement may last for a number of years after your project completes, depending on the nature of your project - five years for capital and one year for revenue.

Apply for funding

If your organisation and project are eligible, you can apply for funding from the Community Fund. 

Apply for funding

Contact us

Our dedicated Fund Officers welcome a chat before you apply to discuss your project idea, chat through the application process and answer any questions you have.  We know how much work goes into applications and we want this to be worthwhile for you. 

New project funding queries