In 2017 Bristol City Council set out a new strategic approach to grant investment aiming to tackle inequality. This brought together 8 of the councils grant funds to create a new programme called the Bristol Impact Fund (BIF).
This programme offered:
- four-year grant funding to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations in the city
- smaller grants for 18 months to encourage new ideas and involvement from more diverse communities
Bristol Impact Fund first round, 2017 to 2021
The first round of the Bristol Impact Fund provided grant investment to projects that deliver support to people facing disadvantage and inequality in the city, and aimed to:
- reduce disadvantage and inequality
- improve health and wellbeing
- increase resilience
The first round of the Bristol Impact Fund has now finished.
Bristol Impact Fund second round, 2021 to 2025
The goal of the second round of Bristol Impact Fund is to grow the power of local communities that experience the greatest inequality.
The second round of Bristol Impact Fund was established with a budget of £6.4 million over 4 years. In 2024, it was extended for 6 months until March 2026 with a 10% uplift in medium and large grants.
Over these 4 years, the Bristol Impact Fund aims to help equalities-led groups, neighbourhood communities and people experiencing the greatest inequality to:
- self-organise and pursue collective priorities
- access trusted, empowering support
- build strong organisations taking forward community priorities
- collaborate and bring about meaningful changes
Medium or large grants
The deadline for applications for the second round of Bristol Impact Fund medium or large grant has now passed and the funding has been awarded.
Find the pdf 40 organisations that have been successful in their bid for grants in this second round (231 KB) .
Medium and large grants will run for the full 4-year funding period, from 1 October 2021 to 30 September 2025.
Small grants
The purpose of the small grants fund is to encourage new ideas and involvement from more diverse communities.
Small grants are between £2,500 and £10,000 per year.
There'll be two funding rounds of small grants, each lasting 18 months and with £150,000 available in each round:
- round 1 is from July 2022 to December 2023
- round 2 is from January 2024 to June 2025
The first Small Grants round has been awarded. See What we have funded so far for details of successful organisations and projects.
The Bristol Impact Fund 2 - Small Grants
The second Bristol Impact Fund (BIF 2) puts community building at the forefront of our response to tackling inequality in the city.
The Small Grants fund aims to fund community groups to build capacity in communities that have experienced the greatest inequality and empower them to act on the issues that matter most to their communities.
The next round of small grant funding is now closed.
Baseline standards
We've developed a set of baseline standards to protect our investment in the voluntary and community sector and make sure that all council funded organisations are well managed and provide good quality services.
All Bristol Impact Funded organisations are required to meet these standards, or to work towards them within the first 6 months of the programme.
The first round of the Bristol Impact Fund offered:
- medium or large Bristol Impact Fund grants, funding projects for 4 years, from July 2017 to September 2021
- small Bristol Impact Fund grants, funding projects for 2 years, from July 2017 to June 2019, and January 2020 to December 2021
The second round of the Bristol Impact Fund offered medium or large Bristol Impact Fund grants, funding projects for 4 years, from October 2021 to September 2025. This has been extended until March 2026.
Since its launch, 70 organisations have received grants and 7,000 volunteers have been involved in projects that have:
- reduced financial, food and fuel poverty
- tackled unemployment
- improved people's access to technology
- enabled people to better participate in their community
- reduced social isolation
- improved wellbeing
You can find details on projects that:
- we currently fund with medium and large grants through the BIF and what we have funded in the past on the published information about our grant funding page Go to https://data.gov.uk/dataset/70de6c87-9b9d-472b-a3bd-e676758531d8/bristol-city-council-grants (opens new window) (data.gov.uk)
- pdf received small grants funding from January 2020 to December 2021 (284 KB)
- will pdf receive medium or large grants funding from October 2021 to September 2025 (231 KB)
- will pdf receive small grant funding from 1 July 2022 to 31 December 2023 (112 KB)
- will pdf receive small grant funding from 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2025 (101 KB)
Evaluation
In 2024, pdf an independent evaluation looking at the first two years of Bristol Impact Fund 2 (2.40 MB) found that it is a crucial programme for empowering local communities to self-organise.
An earlier independant evaluation published in 2020 pdf evaluation of the first 2 years of the Bristol Impact Fund (857 KB) showed the impact the funded projects under the first round of the Bristol Impact Fund.
VCS Prospectus
Our approach to grant funding in the first round of Bristol Impact Fund is explained in the:
- pdf VCS Grants Prospectus full colour version (2.94 MB)
- pdf VCS Grants Prospectus printer friendly version (483 KB)
If you any have questions, email investmentandgrants@bristol.gov.uk.