£5m Emergency Fund Received Applications Totalling More than £40m

CAF’s fund, launched on 30 March, had to be closed on 5 April because it was so oversubscribed.

The Charities Aid Foundation received more than 5,000 applications for grants totalling more than £40m for a £5m fund in just one week.

CAF launched the emergency fund on 30 March but said it had to close applications on 5 April because the fund was so oversubscribed.

It said the new fund would offer grants of up to £10,000 to small charities, non-profits and social enterprises with annual incomes of less than £1m that are struggling amid the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

It said the applications it had received were almost all from registered charities.

CAF said yesterday that it had paid out grants totalling about £1m to 256 UK charities. It hopes to be able to attract further investment and reopen the fund to applications at a later date.

Monica Brown, head of charity advisory and programmes at CAF, said: “I am pleased to see that we have been able to get more than £1m in help to charities in a matter of weeks and it is our plan to grow this fund so that we will be in a position to help more small organisations to continue to deliver vital services in the weeks and months ahead.”

Source: Third Sector