Community Event Grants

Our Funding Objectives

Please note: The Community Event Grant scheme is open for applications until March 2025.

To support the delivery of a diverse range of community events and festivals by helping event organisers re-establish and reconnect to their audience, thereby promoting the active participation of residents in community life.

We will fund community events that:

Are delivered within the borough of Ashford.
Are open to the whole community.
Are free to attend or provide some free activity within the overall event.
Provide opportunities for volunteering and/or community participation.
Promote environmentally responsible and sustainable behaviour.

Funding available – revenue grants up to £2,000 for any one project.

Funding can cover the full cost of your event – but we particularly welcome applications where other funding sources will contribute to the full costs.

Eligibility

In order to apply for a Community Event Grant from Ashford Borough Council, you must meet all of the criteria below:

Be a not-for-profit organisation with a formal charitable status OR an unincorporated organisation with a constitution and a formally appointed voluntary management committee.
Deliver the event or festival in the Ashford Borough.
Ensure your service(s), project(s) or facilities are open to any resident in the borough (or have a clear, non-financial justification for targeting or prioritising a client group).
Have a bank or building society account in the organisation's name.
Have relevant insurances in place e.g. public liability insurance, buildings insurance.
Demonstrate you have relevant safeguards and policies in place i.e. risk assessments, health and safety policy, safeguarding policy.
Have obtained all relevant licenses and permissions e.g. sale of alcohol, permission of landowner, temporary event notice.

How to apply

Download and complete our Community Event Grant application form [doc] 146KB.

Application and assessment process

You can send in your application at any time. Please send your application to grantsandfunding@ashford.gov.uk.

We will give you an in principle funding decision within four weeks of submission of a fully and properly completed application.

If funding is approved in principle, details of your event will be referred to the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) who will review your event to ensure suitable safety requirements are met. Please be aware, the SAG may require you to submit further documentation and will advise you accordingly. On agreement from SAG, you will receive confirmation of funding.

View further details of the SAG process.

Grant offer

If your application is successful we will send you a grant offer. The grant offer sets out the amount of grant funding approved, purpose of the funding, any additional grant conditions, monitoring and review requirements and the evidence of spend we require.

In signing your grant offer, you accept our standard Terms and Conditions of Funding [docx] 17KB and any additional conditions stated in the offer.

You will also be informed of how you can claim your grant. You have 12 months from the date of the grant offer to claim your grant.

You will be asked to provide a short monitoring report once the event had been delivered

Community Events Reset Grant funding is subject to the council’s budget so we may not be able to fund every eligible application.

The decision of the council is final.