Thalia WB Community Fund (formerly Amey)

Before considering making an application, please review your organisational capacity.  Your organisation must be not for profit and 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 ( for Equality, Safeguarding etc) is advantageous. Overall, the process is detailed and will require someone’s committed attention.

Having considered organisational capacity, to be eligible to apply, a project must:

• Be well developed (i.e. 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 (the Fund does not cover Peterborough);
• 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. BUT you must not have made any financial commitment – ie signed a contract for work to be delivered – before you apply.  Indeed, 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 is not eligible to receive a grant.

Your organisation must be not for profit and have a Constitution, Equal Opportunity Policy, Safeguarding Policy, Conflict of Interest Policy, Access Statement, an independent management committee and two independent signatures on bank account. We do fund projects run by Parish Councils but we do not invite applications from District, City or County Councils.

To be eligible for a Thalia grant, projects must be within 10 miles, as the crow flies, of any licensed landfill site in Cambridgeshire (not Peterborough) – click here to find your local landfill sites. Contact Entrust for the most up to date landfill site locations.

Grants can be offered in the range of £10,000 to £100,000 (with the exception of requests under Object DA where the minimum threshold is £5,000). However applications for over £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.

Projects must be in accordance with ENTRUST’s Objects D, DA and E as listed below:

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. 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 ahead), and is situated in the vicinity of a landfill site. This objective does not allow works to private residences.

CAR PARKS – As from October 2014, support is not being offered to build or improve car parking facilities.

ENTRUST is the organisation that regulates the use of landfill tax credit. You can find out more information about the Landfill Communities’ Fund by visiting www.entrust.org.uk;

Grants will be offered in range of £10,000 to £100,000 (with the exception of requests under Object DA where the minimum threshold is £5,000).

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.

Groups applying should be aware for their cash flow planning that grants will be paid in a maximum of two instalments when evidence of expenditure has been provided.