About the Community Grants Programme
What is the Community Grants Programme?
The Community Grants Programme (formerly the Community Investment Scheme) is part of NHS Blood and Transplant’s commitment to build support for donation amongst Black, Asian, mixed heritage and minority ethnic communities.
The programme builds upon the success of the Community Investment Scheme and funds community and faith/beliefs organisations to drive awareness, understanding and behaviour change. We know that trusted local organisations can be effective at achieving these goals due to their specialist knowledge, understanding and footprint in the community and we seek innovative ideas to support and provide sustainable and scalable investment.
In its latest round of funding the programme broadened its scope to cover a range of health inequalities.
- Blood donation – Total funding pot: £300,000 (projects engaging Black African and Caribbean communities only)
- Deceased organ donation – Total funding pot: £150,000
- Living kidney donation – Total funding pot: £150,000
- Stem cell donation – Total funding pot: £100,000
- Combined blood and deceased organ donation – funded using a combination of the above. The blood element of the project had to focus on Black African and Caribbean communities
Why is the programme needed?
Ethnicity is a multidimensional concept with many links to health. The Community Grants Programme will help tackle some of the health inequalities affecting people from Black, Asian, mixed heritage and minority ethnic backgrounds.
It aims to address the shortage of Black blood donors whose blood is used to treat conditions like sickle cell, the shortage of ethnically matched organs for those waiting for a transplant in all Black, Asian, mixed heritage and minority ethnic communities, and the need for ethnically matched stem cell donors.
Establishing and building trust in these communities is key. Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, and research shows they are less likely to view government policies in a positive light or trust government messages.
Through the Community Grants Programme, we look to work with grassroots organisations to engage, educate and recruit more donors as clinical data shows that ethnically matched blood, organs and stem cells provide the best treatment. Successful organisations have the opportunity to apply for sustainable multi-year investment funding after 12 months to deepen or scale their work.
We want to work with trusted and authentic voices in the community to deliver these messages and make a real change for those whose lives will be improved or saved by donation.
Apply for funding
The application window for the latest round of funding closed in January 2023.
If you have any further questions about the programme, please contact community.funding@nhsbt.nhs.uk and we will respond as soon as we can.
