Thalia WB Community Fund

How to apply

Fund-specific deadlines

The Thalia WB Community Fund has unique funding deadlines. Please see the list below to better understand when to apply:

• Apply by 1 March for projects starting in June
• Apply by 1 June for projects starting September
• Apply by 1 September for projects starting December
• Apply by 1 December for projects starting March

Eligiblity criteria

Organisation requirements

Before considering making an application, please review your organisational capacity. Your organisation should have the resources to deal competently with the application process. Whilst past experience of making a funding request is not necessarily needed, familiarity with budgets, cash flow, VAT, procurement and policy documentation is advantageous. Overall, the process is detailed and will require someone’s committed attention.

Your organisation must be operating not for profit and have the following:

• Constitution
• Equal Opportunity Policy
• Safeguarding Policy
• Conflict of Interest Policy
• Access Statement
• An independent management committee
• Two independent signatures on the bank account.

Parish councils are eligible to apply but we cannot accept applications from district, city or county councils.

Project requirements

Project must meet the following requirements to be eligible:

• They need to be well developed. You should have a good idea of costs based on professional estimates, have secured the majority of your funding from other sources, have planning permission, have identified potential contractors etc.;
• Be in Cambridgeshire within 10 miles of any licensed landfill site in Cambridgeshire (excluding Peterborough). To find your local landfill sites click here  or contact Entrust for the most up-to-date landfill site locations.
• Be able to contribute 11% of the value of the grant you are seeking, on top of the project costs. If you are offered a grant, this 11% sum must be paid to Thalia ODC Ltd in order to release the grant funding. If you fundraise for this contribution, you must let donors know that the contribution is separate from the project costs;
• Be capable of starting work within 6 months from when you submit your expression of interest. However, you must not have made any financial commitment (e.g. signed a contract for work to be delivered) before you apply. A financial commitment to a contractor or any other supplier must only be made once the a formal grant offer letter is received, otherwise your project will not be eligible to receive a grant.
• Projects must be in accordance with Entrust’s Objects D, DA and E, as listed below. Entrust is the organisation that regulates the use of landfill tax credit.
  • Object D– The provision, maintenance or improvement of a public park or other general public amenity. Projects which do not relate to a park must relate to another amenity (this excludes car parking facilities). According to the 2010 guidance, “an amenity is something that makes the environment more pleasant or comfortable and/or improves the aesthetic qualities of an area for the general public”.
  • Object DA – The conservation of a specific species or a specific habitat where it naturally occurs.
  • Object E – The repair, maintenance or restoration of a building or structure which is a Place of Religious Worship or a Place of Historical or Architectural Importance, which is open to the general public (and the public should benefit from the project going forward), and it is situated in the vicinity of a landfill site. This objective does not allow works to private residences.

Available grant sizes

Grants can be offered in the range of £10,000 to £50,000, with the exception of requests under Object DA where the minimum threshold is £5,000. However, applications for grants at or near the maximum £50,000 will need to demonstrate exceptional need and value to the community.

Applications that have sourced some of their project costs (over and above the required 11% contribution) from other sources will be considered more favourably than those requesting the full amount from the Thalia WB Community Fund.

Applicants should consider their cash flow before applying. Grants will be paid in a maximum of two instalments when evidence of expenditure has been provided.

About the funder

Based in Waterbeach, Thalia WB ODC is Cambridgeshire’s main waste contractor, providing a landfill and waste processing facility for 200,000 tonnes of the county’s waste each year. By helping to dispose of waste carefully, developing innovative recycling processes and operating a state-of-the-art composting system, Thalia WB is playing a part in improving the local environment.

The Government introduced landfill tax in 1996 to discourage the disposal of waste to landfill and promote more environmentally sustainable methods of waste management. Operators of landfill sites, such as Thalia, can claim a tax credit against their landfill tax liability in return for offering grants through the Landfill Communities Fund.