Sports, leisure, heritage and culture
Museum Galleries Scotland’s Small Grants Fund
Please note the closing dates for expressions of interest are Friday 12 July with an application deadline of Wednesday 31 July 2024, and Wednesday 15 January with an application deadline of Wednesday 29 January 2025
The fund supports museums to develop their work and deliver against the priority areas of Scotland’s museums and galleries Strategy. The fund can support:
- Small scale project work
- Acquisition of equipment and other resources to address time specific needs
- Preparation and scoping work to plan and inform future strategic development
sportscotland - Sport Facilities Fund
Please note the closing date for applications is Tuesday 1 April 2025
The fund supports capital projects that create or improve places that people take part in sport and physical activity. They focus on participation, progression, equality & inclusion, people development, collaboration and impact. Awards are available for sports facility projects within club & communities, school & education or performance sport environments. In clubs and communities they will support:
- new, upgraded or extended sports facilities; Inclusive changing facilities
- facilities that provide or improve access for outdoor sport and adventure activities
- floodlights that increase capacity at appropriate sports facilities
- major items of sports equipment.
The Golsoncott Foundation
Please note applications should be in a few weeks before the scheduled trustees' meetings in August and November
The foundation supports projects that demonstrate and deliver excellence in the arts, be it in performance, exhibition, artistic craft, or scholarly endeavour. Projects involving young people should offer a long-lasting connection between them and the art form and a significant level of participation and achievement at a high standard. Trustees favour applications from arts organisations whose raison d’être is the art form itself, and its perfection or excellence in performance.
Alpkit Foundation
Trustees meet every 2 months to consider applications. If possible, please apply at least 3 months before the start of a project so that the trustees have time to consider it at their next meeting.
The Alpkit Foundation make small awards to people, groups and schools that work to remove the barriers in getting outdoors and experience wild places. They want to support:
- Diversity and Inclusion Projects that engage individual and groups from a diverse range of backgrounds
- Environmental Projects that seek to support, conserve, or generate understanding of our environment and wild places
- Health Projects enabling people to gain physical and mental wellbeing from the Great Outdoors
- Education Projects such as First Aid, D of E, Forest Schools and Mountain Leader
- Participation Projects that get more people experiencing the Great Outdoors
Andy Jackson Fund for Access
Applications are welcome at any time with decisions made on an ad-hoc basis.
The Fund aims to improve and increase access to paddle-sports/canoeing for the waters of Scotland (e.g. canal, open water, marine and river). It provides funding to any project in Scotland that helps paddlers get on the water. Examples of projects which can be funded include:
- Steps to get down to a river bank
- Constructing a path to walk by a river bank
- A shed for any canoeist to store boats in overnight
- A composting toilet near a popular river section
- Car parking near a popular river section
- Funding campaigning for Scottish access legislation
- Funding campaigning against developments which would remove rapids
- Leaflets to promote responsible access to the water by paddlers
Barclays Community Football Fund
Applications are welcome at any time while the fund remains open.
Grants are available for groups wishing to start offering football, those keen to expand their existing provision to new audiences or those already delivering football to under-represented young people. Alongside the grants, the programme will offer training and support resources to groups to help reduce inequalities in the participation of football. The programme’s focus is on including girls and young people from lower socio-economic and under-represented groups: including racially diverse communities, people with disabilities, and people from the LGBTQ+ community.
BRIT Trust
Grant applications are typically considered at the June meeting of the Trust. Applications for the next financial year will open on 1 December 2024, with successful applications granted in November 2025.
The BRIT Trust considers applications which meet the criteria within its mission statement: "improving lives through the power of music and the creative arts".
The National Lottery Film Festival & Screening Programme Fund
Please note the closing dates for applications are Monday 16 September 2024 and Monday 13 January 2025
The fund supports new and existing organisations that are looking to produce film festivals and screening programmes that increase the reach, impact and diversity of film screenings and events for communities throughout Scotland. Activities should also increase engagement within audience groups that are currently underrepresented in cinema audiences. Grants of between £10-40K are available and activities must take place by 31 August 2025.
Benefact Group - Movement for Good
Nominations can be made at any time until 19 December 2024. There will be five special draws throughout 2024 with 10 awards of £5,000 in each draw:
Animals: 19 - 23 February 2024
Health: 22 - 26 April 2024
Youth: 17 - 21 June 2024
Environment: 12 - 16 August 2024
Arts & Culture: 21 - 25 October 2024
Movement for Good awards are available to charities that are changing people’s lives for the better. The public can nominate a charity they would like to see receive the money and competition winners will then be drawn at random. They have supported a range of causes, from funding heat pads to keep hedgehogs warm to helping a telephone befriending service for isolated carers.
Museum Galleries Scotland’s Museum Development Fund
Please note the closing date for expressions of interest is Wednesday 2 October with an application deadline of Wednesday 16 October 2024
Accredited Museums can apply for grants of between £15,000 and £60,000 for projects that will help them to become more resilient. will provide funding for activities which produce positive outcomes for collections, audiences, workforce and sustainability. Projects should focus on re-engaging with communities, developing digital capacity, workforce capacity and resilience, and responding to the climate emergency.
Jerwood Foundation
The Jerwood Foundation supports organisations with a focus on making art available for public benefit and emerging talent in the arts throughout the UK. Up to £2 million is awarded each year, although there are no minimum or maximum grants, they are usually within the range of £1-25K.
Feisean Nan Gaidheal - Tasgadh (Creative Scotland)
Please note the closing date for applications is now Friday 31 January 2025
Funding is available to provide support for traditional artists and organisations to create, perform, tour and showcase work. The fund can also support professional development and learning projects. Applicants must be able to demonstrate a positive track record in and/or professional commitment to one or more of the traditional art forms of Scottish traditional dance, music and storytelling.
Preservation and Conservation Grants
The Pilgrim Trust supports the preservation, conservation and repair of significant historic buildings, structures and architectural features. They also support the conservation of works of art, objects, records and collections.
Des Rubens and Bill Wallace Grant
Closing date for 2025 applicants is 15 January 2025.
The John Muir Trust offers this Grant of £200 - £2,000 to give people the opportunity to seek out life-changing experiences in wild places of the world in ways which will benefit both the person, and the wild places themselves. The grant commemorates two former presidents of the Scottish Mountaineering Club who each led inspiring and adventurous lives. We wish to support projects, which reflect the ethos of both men and give others an opportunity to follow in their footsteps. In the decade since its inception the Grant has made over 40 awards to a wide variety of recipients. The project should involve travel to wild places, must be adventurous, have an educational or scientific component – and be a life-changing experience leading to a commitment to practical action to conserve wild places.
Bruce Wake Charitable Trust
Please note trustees meet quarterly to consider grant applications
Charities or not-for-profit organisations can apply for grant applications related to the provision of leisure activities for the disabled but favour particularly applications whereby the potential beneficiaries meet one or all of the following criteria:
- The potential beneficiaries are physically disabled wheelchair users – unable to raise the required funds
- Improved access for wheelchair users is proposed
- A sporting or leisure activity involving disabled wheelchair users is proposed
MOBO Help Musicians Fund
Grants of up to £3,000 are available to support the careers of talented artists and groups working in music of black origin - for recording and releasing music; helping to build creative portfolios and get music out into the world. The scheme also offers one-to-one business advice and one-to-one health consultation covering all aspects of a musician’s health, including physical and mental health needs and specialist referrals where required. Any solo artist, producer, songwriter or group working within any genre can apply but preference may be given to; R&B, Afrobeat, Soul, Hip Hop, Grime, Jazz, Gospel, Garage, Reggae and African music.
The Scottish Football Partnership Trust Awards
The Trust provides funding and support for grassroots football clubs and other charitable organisations with football-related projects.
NESTA Arts and Culture Impact Fund
A new £20 million impact investment fund is available for the UK's arts, culture and heritage social enterprises. The fund offers loans between £150,000 and £1million repayable over a period of up to ten years. The fund offers repayable finance between £150,000 to £1,000,000 with a repayment term of one to ten years and interest rates ranging between 3% and 10%.
Gordon Fraser Charitable Trust
The trust favours organisations involved with the performing arts, particularly if children and young people are involved and also if the disabled are involved. They also favour organisations set up to further the visual arts and museums. They support small medical charities and environmental charities including support of the built environment. Funding is given under the main headings of health, education, youth work, religion and relief of poverty. Applications from and for Scotland will receive favourable consideration
Team Grassroots Football Foundation Grants
Up to £25,000 is available for the purchase of secure storage containers. The provision of secure storage such as containers is a simple cost effective way of increasing your capacity for equipment and freeing up space within your site for better use. You don’t have to be a football club to apply to the Football Foundation, however, grassroots football must be an integral part of your offer.
Sports Charity Scotland
The charity will consider applications from charities working in Scotland in the fields of sport, children and young people, disability and the disadvantaged. Typical awards range from £500 to £5,000, however, in addition, each year they identify two partner organisations which will receive a significant proportion of the funds raised at The Sports Charity Dinner.
Culture & Business Fund Scotland
C&BS provides match funding to culture organisations to enable partnerships and collaborations with businesses by incentivising sponsorships to bring diverse creative projects to life. It will provide match funding of up to £14,000 per organisation, to support as many arts and heritage organisations as possible, from grassroots initiatives to established cultural events. Other priorities will be to support organisations that have implemented Fair Work policies, have introduced carbon-neutral plans or policies and have embedded equality, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of the activities for which they seek funding.
Mary Janet King Fund
Grants up to £5,000 are available for Scottish grassroots and community groups working with young people in arts and music, particularly with activities that encourage the uptake of music.
Creative Scotland National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations
Funding up to £100K is available for artistic, creative or cultural organisations for projects/programmes of activity lasting up to 18 months. Priority is given to community activities for public benefit.
Peter Harrison Foundation
PHF offers grants of up to £30K for capital, revenue or project funding to create access to opportunities for sport and physical activity at a grassroots level that enables people across the UK who are physically, mentally, socially or economically disadvantaged to develop personal and life skills to fulfil their potential.
Baillie Gifford Grassroots Sports
Funding of up to £5K is available to support grassroots sport organisations. Grants are available to help people to participate in sport by improving quality and participation in sports - all ages and abilities, all sports (excluding elite participation), widening access to sport by removing barriers to participation and improving the sustainability of clubs.
Barclays Community Football Fund
Grants up to £500 are available for community sports clubs and voluntary organisations to offer new football opportunities or expand existing programmes to include people in under-represented groups, particularly girls and people with protected characteristics.
The Cruach Trust
This small Scottish charity provides grants of up to £2,000 for projects related to the natural environment, community, and music. Organisations eligible to apply include registered or recognised charities, societies, trusts, and other bodies, with a preference for Scottish small and local charities. However, organisations with an income exceeding £2 million will not be considered.
Paul Hamlyn Arts-based Learning Fund
The Fund supports work which enables pupils in formal education settings, particularly those experiencing systemic inequality or disadvantage, to thrive through engagement with high quality, arts-based learning. Arts-based learning is learning experiences which incorporate arts-based content, and/or use arts-based approaches to secure access to or enhance engagement with the curriculum. They will prioritise funding for work taking place outside of London that is for the benefit of primary-age children, and applications which demonstrate they support and champion people with lived experience of systemic inequality and barriers to learning within the education system in the leadership and delivery of the work. Grants between £30,000 and £400,000 over 2-3 years.