The Local Sustainability Fund is available to help Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises who are delivering important services, but currently facing challenges, to plan for the future.

Delivered by the Big Lottery Fund on behalf of the Office for Civil Society, the Local Sustainability Fund aims to help organisations become stronger, more sustainable and more resilient.

There are two aspects to the programme – a diagnostic tool and the funding.

This funding is aimed at medium sized organisations with a turnover of at least £100,000 a year.

To check if you are eligible, click here.

Once you have confirmed eligibility, you will be encouraged to complete the diagnostic tool. This looks at things like your business plan, management accounts, your staffing, your strategy and how you involve volunteers and local business.

When you have submitted the diagnostic tool, Big Lottery will consider inviting you to apply for the fund. They hope to be able to fund about 260 projects across England at an average grant size of around £70,000.

If you are invited to apply, you will need to work with an advisor, someone with the experience and expertise to advise and help you evaluate, plan and deliver the change that is best for your organisation. This is where Community Action: MK can help.

As part of our free support for charities and community groups in Milton Keynes, we can help you with the first stage – to navigate the diagnostic, develop your application and business change plan.

Big Lottery would then expect your application to contain an element of payment for an advisor to help with key project delivery costs if you were to be successful in your funding application.

The deadline to complete the diagnostic tool is 26th July, so there’s not much time – head to http://vcsediagnostic.org.uk/ to get started.

If you have any questions or would like to talk through the process further please contact alissa@communityactionmk.org or call 01908 661623.