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Eastbourne Community Grants

Eastbourne Borough Council recognises and supports the immensely valuable contribution which is made by voluntary groups and organisations across Eastbourne in a variety of fields. We provide a range of grants to support voluntary activity in the town.

  • Please note: the bidding process for major and housing grants for the period 2019 to 2022 has now ended. 

Major and Housing Grants are awarded for spending in a three year period.

The Council has allocated £203,000 a year for each of the three years from 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2022 to be distributed as Major Grants of £10,000 or more and a further £56,500 to be distributed as Housing Grants to deliver the following priority services:

  • Advice and Financial Inclusion services
  • Youth engagement services and activities
  • Services to homeless people, those at risk of homelessness and vulnerable people with a history of homelessness
  • Services which promote voluntary and community activities and organisations through the provision of comprehensive information, advice, training and other support services to the full range of not-for profit organisations. 

The council will not fund:

  • Major capital works or projects
  • Any project that duplicates services already provided and funded elsewhere.

Given the challenging financial situation being experienced by the council as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and resultant economic downturn, it has been decided to delay the start of this year’s small grants to voluntary organisations programme. 

The uncertainty of the financial climate means that the council has decided to take time to review its position before any grant applications are requested.

During this pause, the council will continue to provide its ongoing grant support to key organisations in the town such as CAB, Age Concern, Brighton Housing Trust, but will not be requesting any new applications.

Further information will be issued in due course.

Since it was set up in May 2018, the Eastbourne Local Lottery has helped raised over £100,000 for local good causes. 

If you would like to support the lottery or are a good cause and would like to sign up visit the Eastbourne Local Lottery website.

When buying a £1 ticket, players can choose which good cause they want to support and 50p of the £1 goes to their chosen cause. For every ticket bought, 10p of the £1 also automatically goes into the “Eastbourne Local Lottery Community Fund”. The remaining 40p of each £1 ticket is split between administration of the lottery 20p and prize money 20p. So every £1 spent on a local lottery ticket is split between: 

How the ticket money is split up
Money   
 50p  Chosen good cause
 10p  Eastbourne Community Fund, distributed annually by Eastbourne Borough Council
 20p  Eastbourne lottery administration by Gatherwell Ltd
 20p Prize money 

When buying a lottery ticket, players may select the Eastbourne Local Lottery Community Fund as their chosen good cause so that means 60p of their £1 will go into that fund (50p as the chosen cause and 10p contribution from every ticket as outlined above).

The Eastbourne Community Fund is accrued annually from when tickets first went on sale, from 17 May to 16 May the following year and it is administered by Eastbourne Borough Council. In 2019 the council decided that this community fund would be split between the good causes already signed up to Eastbourne Local Lottery, with the causes selling over 5 weekly tickets getting a small grant payment and causes who sold over 30 weekly tickets receiving a higher amount.

In its first year 2018/19, £17,285 was raised in the Eastbourne Community Fund which was distributed to 61 local good causes.

In its second year 2019/20 £20,475 was raised in the Eastbourne Community Fund which was distributed to 67 local good causes. 

The good causes who sold over 30 weekly tickets in 2019/20 are:

  • Friends of the Devonshire Park Theatre
  • Eastbourne Foodbank
  • East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service
  • Embrace - East Sussex
  • The JPK Sussex Project
  • Friends of Eastbourne Hospital
  • Age Concern Eastbourne
  • Memory Lane Eastbourne
  • Warming Up The Homeless
  • You Raise Me Up
  • Muma Nurture
  • BourneOut LGBT

Eastbourne Guiding (formerly the Girl Guides) is one of the charities that received a small grant this year: “Thank you so much for our share of the Local Lottery money, we have recently adopted a beach through Plastic Free Eastbourne so our share of the pot will be used to purchase a beach cleaning kit for all our young members to use to help keep Eastbourne the wonderful place it is! Many thanks and kind regards” Jane McMahon, Eastbourne Guiding Division Co Commissioner

In 2020/21, during its third year, The Eastbourne Local Lottery Community Fund has raised a further pot. This will be distributed later in 2021 to the charities signed up to the Eastbourne Local Lottery on the same terms and conditions as the two previous years, based on their number of weekly tickets sold.

For any further information on the Eastbourne Local Lottery or the Eastbourne Local Lottery Community Fund, please contact CustomerFirst@lewes-eastbourne.gov.uk

Eastbourne borough council has 35 properties which are currently in community use. The Council’s policy is to assess and charge the full market rent for any property it leases. Not-for profit organisations, who are leasing one of these properties, may be invited to apply for Rent Support Grant in recognition of their social value. 

Rent Support Grant will only be awarded where it is clear that the property is being used to support the Council’s Corporate and Service priorities and being used to its full potential and there is a clear need for grant to support rent payments.

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The Disability Inclusion Fund is now closed for 2020/21 and no longer accepting applications. We hope to renew the fund for 2021/22.

The Eastbourne Disability Inclusion Fund will provide money for interventions that improve access to facilities, events or services for people with disabilities, including those with a hidden disability, in Eastbourne. The fund will support and kick-start interventions to help tackle the barriers experienced by disabled children and adults in actively participating in all aspects of life.

A new Disability Inclusion Task Group comprising three Eastbourne councillors and a council officer will decide on applications that can be made by voluntary and community groups in Eastbourne, as well as by the council itself.

Awards of up to £1,000 will generally be made to any single organisation, although higher awards may be considered in exceptional circumstances.

Criteria for the allocation of funds are;

  • Interventions which aim to improve the experience of people with disabilities in the borough
  • Interventions which enable children with disabilities to be more fully included in mainstream activities, events or services
  • Interventions which, in particular, aid the inclusion of those with a hidden disability