Funding in Perth & Kinross

The Smarter Choices, Smarter Places (SCSP) Open Fund aims to encourage people to change their behaviours to walk or cycle as part of their everyday short journeys. Grants are available to encourage people to use buses and community car clubs for longer journeys; walking and cycling for short journeys, and home-working to replace daily commutes. An innovation for 2020/21 is the introduction of grants for organisations that want to introduce home-working into their organisations to make it easier for people to reduce their commute.

Donations from the foundation are made to mainly small and medium sized registered charities throughout Scotland, targeting things like community welfare, medical support and research, the arts, education and heritage conservation.

The trust usually supports specific services or projects and prefers to give start-up grants for new initiatives. Grants are usually one-off and average £2,000. They primarily give to organisations in Fife.

The trust supports the relief of poverty, aid for the aged, the infirm and handicapped, the advancement of education, the provision of recreational facilities and the preservation of buildings or other items of national or historic interest. The Trustees also tend to favour capital projects rather than running costs. Categories of funding include: child and adult welfare; environment and conservation; animal welfare; medical research and support; research and education; international welfare and arts.

The scheme is designed to support charities registered and operating in the United Kingdom, especially those working at grass roots and local community level, in any field, across a wide range of activities. The focus will be to make one-year grants only to cover core costs or essential equipment, to enable ongoing service provision, homeworking, or delivery of online digital services to charities that can show financial stability. The priority will be to support local charities still active in their communities which are currently delivering services to the young, vulnerable, elderly, disadvantaged or the general community either directly or through online support if possible.

The purpose of this fund is to support immediate and critical financial need in order for venues which programme theatre and / or dance and / or music to remain solvent during the period of closure to the public and to plan for a sustainable return. This funding is to bridge the financial gap until opening plans and income projections are clearer. The fund is targeted at professionally staffed organisations whose primary function is to serve as a year-round presenting venue.