Over £110,000 available for community groups

Community groups in Rochdale are being encouraged to plan ahead for 2010 and make sure that they benefit from over £110,000 of grant money that is available through the Community Foundation’s Grassroots Fund.

The Grassroots Fund, which was set up by the government’s Office for the Third Sector to support small voluntary and community groups across the country, has over £1.1 million of grant money to spend between January and September 2010 across the Greater Manchester area.

Rob Malyan, Programme Manager who oversees the Grassroots, said: “This fund is available to support groups within the Greater Manchester area with a range of costs. Groups must have been in existence for over 12 months prior to the date of applying and be volunteer led.

“It is important to emphasise to groups that they will have to apply as soon as possible as the money won’t last long.” 

More than 57 groups that are based in Rochdale have already benefited from £190,679 worth of funding from Grassroots Grants.

Awards of up to £5,000 are available and can be used to fund a wide range of activities such as: purchasing equipment; putting on a local event; contribution to rent costs and the training of volunteers, etc. The funding is intended to respond to the diverse needs of community organisations.