The Social Infrastructure Fund is Norfolk County Council's capital grants scheme for voluntary and non-profit making groups.
Set up in 2020, grants of up to £250,000 are available for groups who are involved in community projects and initiatives that benefit the residents of Norfolk. Groups can use the funding to make improvements to their existing facilities, or to fund new initiatives and projects.
This grant is part of our commitment to voluntary and community organisations. It helps strengthen local communities by providing support for local buildings and facilities.
£775k of funding was available in 2022 - with £225,000 set aside for smaller projects of between £5,000 and £50,000, and the other £550,000 for larger projects between £50,000 and £250,000.
In November 2022 we fast-tracked five projects for funding. We then went on to award grants to 10 more great projects in February 2023. Read more about these developments in our news stories:
The grant is for capital projects that support the Council’s Better Together, for Norfolk strategy, and that help the county with the challenges it currently faces, such as increased living costs. For example, the money could be used to:
Funding has now closed for 2022.
We will put out at least one call for projects each year. You can only apply for a grant when we are calling for projects.
We may put out further calls in the year, depending on how much of the funding we give out in the first round. If we don’t allocate all the funds in a financial year we will roll the remaining funding over to future years.
Our team will look at the information you have provided against a range of issues including:
If your expression of interest is successful we will contact you and invite you to make a full application.
We will send you a form to fill in that asks for some more detailed information about your project, including:
We will also ask you for the following information:
The closing date for final applications is 5pm 12 December 2022
Our panel will look at the projects and score each of them against a scoring table. A maximum possible score will be 35 points. If any projects score below 14 points we will not consider them for funding.
Scoring areas:
For each scoring area, points are given from 1-5:
If your full application is unsuccessful, we will write to you to let you know. We will give you feedback on how we came to our decision.
If your full application is successful, we will write to you to let you know. You will need to sign and return our offer letter. We will ask for your organisation’s bank details so that we can make the grant payment to you.
You will need to include our logo and/or mention the support we have given the project on all related promotional materials such as press releases, posts, flyers, websites, signage etc. This includes contacting us at socialinfrastructurefund@norfolk.gov.uk in order to coordinate any press coverage. We would also like to receive photographs of your project as it develops.
You will need to send us two interim reports. One by the end of March 2023 and the other by the end of July 2023. We will also ask you to send us a final report by the end of October 2023 to show the impact of your grant and help us showcase your success
We will use these reports in our internal audit process. As part of these reports you will need to give us evidence e.g. receipts, invoices, bank statements etc to show how you are using the funding we gave you.
Throughout the project, and until we’ve agreed the project closure report with you, you will need to agree to open your books to our internal auditors if we put in a reasonable request to you.
You can only spend the grant on the purpose you have put in your application. If for any reason your circumstances change, and you wish to change the way you spend your grant you will need to contact us to ask. If we agree to the change then we will confirm this in writing.
