Seed Funding

Seed funding now closed.

Resources:

Application forms: Micro grants and Full grants.

Video overview:

Overview:

Do you have a project ready to go, supporting Transition activity in your community under the shadow of Covid-19? Perhaps you have but you don’t know it yet! Or you may have ongoing Transition work that’s really giving value to your community, particularly during this pandemic, that needs support.

Thanks to funding from The National Lottery Community Fund we can announce the opening of the Transition: Bounce Forward seed-funding for Transition groups in England.

We know Transition groups are doing fantastic work responding to the challenges of climate crisis, social injustice and inequality. We also know that there are very real capacity and resource needs for doing this vital work, and even more so under the changing circumstances of Covid-19.

Why “seed”? The National Lottery Community Fund have generously given Transition Network funding that can be given as seed-funding grants to Transition groups in England. We’d like as many Transition groups as possible to benefit from this £140,000 pot, and we’ve heard that some Transition groups will find even a small amount of funding very useful. We hope it helps Transition groups now, to unblock and release your activity to thrive whether it be maintaining work you were already doing or starting something new that addresses real need where you are.

The funding is part of the Transition: Bounce Forward project that started in September with four “What Is” webinars mapping out the wider context in which Transition activity is operating around climate reality, wellbeing and social justice. These went on to look at what Transition initiatives like yours are doing, and how Transition work is adapting during the global pandemic.

So how’s it going to work?

We developed the seed-funding structure with a fantastic group of Transitioners and hope it really is light touch and open enough to support what you’re doing. The funding is divided in two pots –

140 micro grants of up to £500
20 full grants of up to £3500

To be eligible for a seed-funding grant you first need to be registered as an initiative on the Transition Network website, a simple gateway to tell us that you understand and practice Transition Principles in your work. It also means that you’ll appear on the Transition Near Me map – one of the most visited pages on our website and a great way for potential new members and collaborators to find you.

If you’re not already registered, follow these simple steps:

Register as an individual here: https://transitioninitiative.org/member-register/
Once you are registered you can login here: https://transitioninitiative.org/member-login/ and register your Transition group by going to dashboard and then Initiative admin and click add new initiative.

The micro grants of up to £500 are designed to be super light touch. We simply want you to let us know what you want to do through one short written paragraph, or short audio or video description. You might apply if you need to book a room, pay a facilitator, buy new garden equipment, make some signage or buy tools for a repair café, for example. The micro-grants are all about unblocking low cost solutions that only need a small amount of money to help you get on with what you do best, where you are. Projects need to be completed by the end of September 2021.

Full grants of up to £3500 are available to address larger challenges, longer processes or bigger events. Although we appreciate this is still not a large grant, we hope £3500 enables you to exercise your Transition muscles, particularly around social justice, collaborating with local partners and practicing Transition Principles. We’re going to ask you to tell us a bit more about how your project relates to these areas of focus and you’ll need to complete the projects by the end of September 2021.

We have produced an “All you need to know” document and you can look at the application forms: Micro grants and Full grants.

You’ll notice that the seed funding is directed at groups in England only –

Transition Network is delegated to distribute seed-funding from The National Lottery Community Fund’s Covid-19 emergency response programme, which specifically supports communities in England. We’d like to give our thanks to National Lottery players for making this possible.

For both grants we’d love you to tell us what you did, share pictures, blogs, even a short selfie video of 45 seconds to give us a spirit of your endeavours so we can then share wide and far to amplify your work.

If you’re thinking about applying for the micro grants or the full grants, the deadline for application is the same – 30th November 2020.

We’ll be hosting a seed-funding Q&A at our upcoming webinar on 11th November in which we will introduce the ‘What If’ components of our Transition: Bounce Forward project in Great Britain in more detail.