Community grants

We actively support and encourage our communities with a number of grant opportunities. The types of grant available are summarised below, to find out more and apply, follow the links provided.

The Thriving Communities funding round for 2025-26 is now open

The Thriving Communities Fund replaces Community Chest. The application process for the Thriving Communities Fund has been streamlined to encourage smaller community organisations to apply while two levels of grants are now available:

Community grants of between £2,000 and £8,000 are available for one-off projects by community groups, that will support residents in a small part of the district such as an estate or village.
Larger grants of between £8,001 and £20,000 – will fund work to support residents across the whole of West Suffolk or big parts of the district such as a town. Although organisations can apply for this level of funding, the council retains its discretion to take each application on its merits and may grant a smaller amount.

Please note - smaller grants of £100 to £2,800 are available throughout the year from West Suffolk councillor locality budgets. Applications to the Thriving Communities Fund for grants below £2,000 will be put forward to the ward councillor(s) for the area to consider whether to award locality budgets funds.

Funded activities will contribute to the delivery of the council’s strategic priority for Thriving Communities, ensuring residents can access services and support as well as activities to improve their health and wellbeing. The minimum amount that can be applied for is £2,000. This funding can be for one off projects or revenue funds for services. Before applying, please read the eligibility criteria in: West Suffolk Council Thriving Communities Funding 2025-26 Guidance for applicants.

Organisations are to complete the Thriving Communities Fund Application Form (editable PDF) and send to thrivingcommunitiesfund@westsuffolk.gov.uk

For guidance on completing the form please read: Thriving Communities Fund Application Form Guidance Notes

To discuss your application prior to submission please contact families.communities@westsuffolk.gov.uk or phone 01638 719235.

The deadline for applications is 12noon on Friday 27 September 2024.

Funder in Focus – online webinar

To promote the launch of the Thriving Communities funding round, West Suffolk Council and Community Action Suffolk are hosting a Funder in Focus – online webinar to discuss the Thriving Communities Fund. Join us to speak with Jon Eaton to discuss the West Suffolk Council Thriving Communities programme. The webinar will explore the process, the eligibility and we will also be looking at what is needed to make a successful submission and how decisions are made. There will be plenty of opportunities to ask questions, float ideas and to interrogate the application in more depth.

Please note - this event is only open to organisations who are based in West Suffolk or who run activities or deliver services for participants within the district council boundary.

This session will take place online via MS Teams from 1.30pm to 3pm on Thursday 12 September.

To book onto the ‘free of charge’ Funder in Focus Webinar visit Network Event Booking Form - West Suffolk: Thriving Communities Webinar - 12 September

Locality budgets

Available to community groups for projects or activities that the whole local community can enjoy, to contact your local Families and Communities officer see the Families and Communities Ward Map.

Contacts:

North locality officers - Lesley-Ann Keogh phone: 01638 719238 and Gemma O'Shea phone: 01284 757465
Central locality officers - Ellie McCarthy Phone: 01284 757461 and Stephanie Edmans Phone: 01284 757080
South locality officers - Jon Eaton Phone: 01638 719235 and Chris Swarbrick Phone: 01284 757216

For more details on this and restrictions, read the West Suffolk Locality Budget Scheme Guidance for councillors .

To apply you will need to contact your local councillor. To find out who your councillor(s) are and how to contact them, please visit our Councillors and meetings page.
For information about which community groups have received locality budget payments in West Suffolk, see our Locality budgets page.

More information

You can see our approach to funding illustrated in our Families and Communities funding approach diagram

For more information read Our approach to working with families and communities

Other funding sources

Home assistance grants

Funding is available from West Suffolk Council to assist families and residents to make safe, repair and improve their homes and we would like your help to engage with our communities.

We can assist in different ways, through Warmer Homes Healthy People or through the Home Assistance grant (HAG) to help home owners carry out repairs and improvements to their homes to ensure that they are warm, weatherproof or watertight, safe and secure and have reasonably modern kitchen and bathroom facilities.

To find out more, or to see if one of our other grants could help, see our Housing grants page.

Energy grants

For a wide range of grants and other assistance with energy saving initiatives for businesses and community venues, see the Green Suffolk website

Funding 4 Suffolk

Funding 4 Suffolk is a website which lets you browse available funding by organisation type. There are also hints and tips for completing successful funding applications as well as a section specifically for local funds. You can access Funding 4 Suffolk at: Community Action Suffolk - Sustainability and funding advice