November: funding opportunities & competitions

WRITE NOW Early Stage Development Documentary Fund

Provides grants of up to £3,000 and tailored support for the early development and writing phase of a director’s first or second feature-length documentary. Deadline: Monday 18 November. More info here.

Theatres Trust Small Grants Scheme

Funds small projects that make a big impact to a theatre’s resilience, sustainability, accessibility or improving the diversity of audiences. Provides grants of up to £5,000 for essential works to enable not-for-profit theatres across the UK to be viable and thrive in the future. Deadline: Friday 17 January 2025. More info here.

Creative Scotland Tasgadh—Small Grants for Traditional Arts fund

Provides support for traditional artists and organisations to create, perform, tour, and showcase their work. The Fund, managed by Fèisean nan Gàidheal, will provide grants of between £250 and £1,000 to organisations and individuals involved in Scottish Traditional Arts, including dance, music, and storytelling. Deadline: 31 January 2025. More info here.

Hinrichsen Foundation

Grants to support contemporary music performance, including the commissioning of new work, non-commercial recording, or publication. There are two levels of funding available:

• One-off small grants typically between £500 and £2,500 (for new applicants and former beneficiaries).

• Larger projects or concert series generally £2,000 and over.

Deadline: 12 December. More info here.

Cultural Bridge Fund

Cultural Bridge supports arts and cultural organisations across the UK and Germany to develop partnerships that explore social arts practice.By enabling new and existing connections, the programme supports a growing network of organisations committed to sharing expertise and skills, exchanging ideas and collaborating on artistic practices and projects that explore themes and issues faced by communities across both countries. Deadline: Tuesday 26th November. More info here.

Immersive Arts

Immersive Arts is a brand new funding and support programme for UK-based artists, designed to help them develop their art by using immersive technologies. The initiative is divided into three strands: Explore (grants of £5,000), Experiment (grants of £20,000) and Expand (grants of £50,000), tailored to artists at various stages of their careers. Deadline for Round One applications for all strands (Explore, Experiment and Expand) is 2 December 2024. More info here.

The Cruach Trust

Grants of up to £2,000 are available to small Scottish charitable organisations to support environmental, community and music projects. Applications are considered once a year and the next deadline for applications is 12 September 2025. Find out more here.

The D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust

Grants available for UK registered charities seeking to enhance and improve people’s lives through advancing the arts, health and medical welfare, and the environment. Typically awards grants of between £500 and £6,000 for projects and core costs, with a preference for small-scale, locally based initiatives. The next deadline for applications is 4 February 2025. More info here.

Association of Independent Museums’ (AIM) Training Grants

Grants of up to £350 to support museums in developing the skills and expertise of their workforce. This could include course fees, accommodation, travel costs, seminars and workshops, museum study visits and mentoring placements. Deadline: 16th December 2024. More info here.

John Ellerman Foundation Museums and Galleries Fund

Aims to strengthen regional museums and galleries in the UK, support projects that enable new ways of working for both established and emerging curators, and help safeguard and advance curatorial skills during periods of development or change. The Foundation expects to award five or six grants of around £90,000 each for projects lasting two to three years. Deadline: 6th January 2025. More info here.

Music for All Community Project Funding Programme

Grants are available to community groups, schools and individuals under a number of different categories, each with their own criteria and award amounts. More info here.

Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation

The programme is open to small UK-registered charities working in music, the performing arts, and Jewish life and learning. The Foundation will also accept applications which seek to defuse tension and promote peaceful coexistence between Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel, tackle antisemitism and Islamophobia in the UK, and promote peaceful co-existence and understanding between the UK’s Jewish and Muslim communities. Deadline: 22 November 2024. More info here.

The Brit Trust

Funding is available for organisations that use the power of music and the creative arts to improve the lives of young people of all backgrounds across the UK. This funding supports music and arts initiatives that promote education, wellbeing, and community engagement, helping individuals realise their full potential, regardless of ability, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality. Deadline: 30 April 2025. More info here.

Tom Grass Spirit of Adventure Literary Prize

The prize is for a short piece of stand-alone prose in either Fiction or Non-Fiction. It can be adapted from a longer work but must be satisfying to read by itself. The prize invites writers from all walks of life, whether writing a short story, essay, memoir, piece of reportage, historical investigation, or other hybrid form, as long as the writer reflects the sensibility of the prize. The prize is not aimed at the action-adventure genre nor limited to the idea of physical adventure. We invite writers to grapple with the spirit of adventure in any way they interpret. Deadline: 31st March 2025. More info here.

The NextGen Fund provided by Youth Music 

Intended help early-stage musicians and wider music adjacent creatives to invest in their own projects and make their ideas happen. Grants of up to £2,500 to support costs linked to training, career development, travel, audience development, marketing, equipment, software and business development. Deadline: 15 November 2024. More info here

Weir Charitable Trust

Grants of up to £25,000 to small charities and community groups across Scotland with an annual income of less than £125,000 to deliver projects and activities that improve the quality of life for local communities, including Culture - Supporting the heritage - tangible or otherwise - of Scotland, through projects that encourage participation in and preservation of Scotland's distinctive culture. Deadline: 28 February 2025. More info here.