Community Fund open for applications

Applications are open for this year’s Community Fund, as the initiative returns for its fourth year.

This scheme allows colleagues to apply for a share of £30,000 in funding grants to support community projects they are involved in either as part of their job or in a voluntary capacity.

Projects must support people in the Thames Valley region – anywhere in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire or Oxfordshire – and must further at least one of the University’s charitable objectives of advancing education, learning and research for public benefit.

The Community Fund provides one-off, small awards, in the region of £1,000 for use in the next academic year (2024/25), as well as larger awards up to a maximum of £10,000 to use on a one-off or multi-year basis.

All funding proposals that meet the criteria will be reviewed by a panel, which will meet in July.

Awards were made last year to support 18 community projects. These included:

• Supporting Whitley Amateur Boxing Club to put on a local competition for young boxers;
• Enabling the Reading Street Pastors to provide a Safe Hub for their service users;
• A project designed to tackle mould in households in Whitley, Reading;
• Supporting an Oxfordshire charity to launch an accessible cook book for people with learning disabilities.

Projects funded in previous years include supporting a mixed ability rugby club to expand, providing vital supplies for a homeless charity and supporting multilingual storytelling in local nurseries.

If you have a project that could benefit from funding, please apply before the application deadline of 30 June.

A University for Reading

The return of the Community Fund initiative comes as part of a ‘University For Reading’ external media campaign launched today (Monday 15 April) to publicly share the multiple community-based projects led by the University.

It supports our strategic aim to engage with the people and communities in the Thames Valley region.

The campaign features the opening for nominations of our new Charity of the Year Scheme. The new scheme will see the University select a single charity to work with and support, in a variety of ways, throughout an academic year..

Visit the Charity of the Year website for information on how charities can apply.

Image: Left to right: Sian Walsh, Launchpad team leader; Kirsti Wilson, Launchpad Head of Fundraising; Professor Robert Van de Noort, Vice Chancellor of the University of Reading.