Who can I apply to for FUNDING to improve our playground.

[drosophila]

DOes anyone know a good site or have any good ideas. We need to raise quite a bit so will be writing to anyone we think may have some money to give away.

Grateful for any tips.

Get local papers involved for some publicity, organise fundraising events and write to every local business you can think of who may happily donate money or help you raise some

\link{http://www.awardsforall.org.uk/england/about.html\awards for all} might be worth a look if you can turn it into a volunteering project

\link{http://www.groundwork.org.uk/about-our-work\groundwork trust} perhaps?

\link{http://www.ltl.org.uk/\This site} may be useful to you.

Great, keep them coming.

Thanks

I think your council should be one of your points of call. They often plan refurbishing playgrounds as part of their spending plans. It's worth finding out if they are planning anything. They may not be able to fund it all but they should be able to contribute.

Round here, they have refurbished quite a few playgrounds. For our nearest one, a group of mums had to fundraise a sizeable amount and then a local grant was awarded plus a council amount. I think because the playground has been designed to be used by children who also have special needs (so lots of wheelchair friendly stuff including special swings etc.) that meant, other agencies came into play to help with funding.

Lots of big companies offer money to improve schools - I know that NatWest, Barclays, Tesco and B&Q all do them - look on their websites (I know because I'm on our PTA and we are looking into them at the moment).

What about parents at the school who work for certain companies that might help??? We get a lot of parental donations and help and gets lots of stuff through contacts.

GDG - had a look on these websites - can't find any direct links to grants / funding for schools. Our school is having new playground quipment fitted (adventure type equipment) and funding would come in handy! Do you have any direct contains - or the actual links to these websites?
I think this could be a useful thread for many!

\link{http://www.acf.org.uk/linkstrusts.htm\list of all UK Trusts and Foundations}

lists the charitable and grantmaking parts of major companies. Be warned it can be a hard slog to get major money. but some have small grants schemes ie under

Mazzystar - thanks for that - I'll do some digging and what happens!

just out of curiosity how much does it cost to improve.build a new playground?maybe i could persuade our school!!

It might be worth having a look at the \link{www.biglotteryfund.org.uk\Big Lottery Fund} as well?

Our school has a quote for some adventure playground equipment - total £4500 - obviously you can spend more or less than this - but the equipment can be added to as funds permit!

Mazzystar thanks. Our project wi;; probaly cost 40k but we are starting with nothing.

once you have some money it gets easier.

also worth approaching your local council in case they have a "community chest" pot or something similar.

if you can find a local grant-making trust they are usually a good place to start. another good tactic is to cultivate a relationship with one of the trustees. takes time though.

good luck - and as i said if i can help at all give me a shout.