Surrey Community Fund

The Surrey Community Fund (SCF) supports current and emerging needs in communities across the county, and using our local knowledge and expertise, enables us to be pro-active and responsive in addressing critical issues identified at any one time.

The Fund is currently supporting two major areas of concern across the county:

1). Emergency and Crisis Funding 

Winter is a challenging time for families walking a financial tightrope and, with funding schemes closing, the outlook for this winter is looking particularly bleak. Surrey County Council has generously donated £200,000 to enable us to distribute urgent emergency and crisis funding for grants relating to poverty during the period of 1 December 2021- 31 March 2022. We are appealing for additional donations to match this to help keep Surrey residents warm and well this winter.

The purpose of the funding is to support an increased number of people facing poverty by strengthening community initiatives, including a focus on activity that helps address the root causes of food poverty.

Applications will be prioritised for projects dealing with urgent issues arising from what is anticipated to be a tough Winter, in particular:

• Support for organisations tackling the impact of rising costs and falling benefits including crisis provision e.g. measures which improve the sustainability of food banks, or increase the ability of debt advisors to provide support.
• Support for organisations that tackle the root causes of poverty.

Priority will also be given to initiatives that support those parts of the community that may have been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19.

During this period, the Foundation will also accept emergency requests from previous grantees facing a financial crisis where a short-term award could help to bridge a gap with a view to implementing a sustainable solution.

2). Recovery from COVID-19

In 2020 we delivered the Surrey Coronavirus Response Fund, providing emergency response grants to charitable organisations providing direct action to those impacted by the virus. At the time of writing, many of the inequalities that already existed in Surrey are now more prevalent due to COVID-19, and new economic and inequality  challenges have arisen as a direct result of the virus.

Our aim now is to help local residents and communities to cope and recover from COVID-19, bringing hope to local people’s lives and empowering communities to move forwards.

With your help, we can continue to get funding to where it is most needed and empower local communities to cope, recover and rebuild effectively.

We are delighted that Surrey County  Council have also donated funding to this programme in order to match donations – so that every £100 donated will be doubled to £200.