Dumfries and Galloway Coastal Benefit Fund

THE FUND IS CURRENTLY OPEN FOR APPLICATIONS

Application Deadline: 28 March 2025 (midday)

Dumfries and Galloway Coastal Benefit Fund has been established to invest funds awarded to our Council from the net revenue generated from Scottish Crown Estate marine assets (out to 12 nautical miles).

Funding available for 2025

The funding available for third sector projects across Dumfries and Galloway is just over £500k and is open to applications from Third Sector Community Organisations which will bring direct benefit to our coastal areas.

In addition to supporting the Principles and Outcomes in our Council Plan 2023-2028, Applications must also contribute to supporting the 'Blue Economy' through:

• Environmental enhancement
• Emissions reduction or removal of waste
• Jobs
• Tourism
• Skills development
• Diversification projects
• Investment for community purpose
• Climate change adaptation

HOW TO APPLY

Download the Application Form and the Guidance and Criteria:

Coastal Fund Application Form 2025-26 [DOCX - 159KB]

Coastal Fund Guidance and Criteria 2025-26 [PDF - 249KB]

HOW MUCH CAN YOU APPLY FOR?

There are two funding streams available. 

1. SMALL Community-led projects for third sector organisations

For projects seeking up to £5k

• There is a total of £125,528 available in this stream
• You can apply for up to 100% of your total project costs from the Small Fund, however, match funding is encouraged, and the Scoring Framework is weighted to those seeking up to 80%

​​​​​​​2. LARGE Community-led projects for third sector organisations

For projects seeking up to £50k

• There is a total of £376,584 available in this stream
• You can apply for up to 100% of your total project costs from the Small Fund, however, match funding is encouraged, and the Scoring Framework is weighted to those seeking up to 80%

Applications will be assessed in the relevant funding stream and should any be underspent, the anticipated allocations above may be varied and the remaining balance of the Fund will be allocated as required.

Depending on the volume of applications received the anticipated allocations above may be varied and the remaining balance of the Fund will be allocated as required.

You may only receive a percentage of what you applied for.

CRITERIA

Applications must:

• be received by noon on 28 March 2025.
• detail the full eligible project costs which can include capital and/or revenue costs (see GENERAL EXCLUSIONS below).
• be for projects that will start within 3 months of a decision and be fully delivered and use the funding award by 31 March 2026.
• directly benefit coastal communities.
• be submitted by the organisation which will incur the expenditure and be responsible for project delivery.  No third-party applications can be accepted.

For further information, please see the Guidance and Criteria 2025.

GENERAL EXCLUSIONS

Applications:

• cannot include ongoing running costs of an organisation.
• cannot include costs to cover existing salaries(additional hours are permitted).
• cannot include management fees.
• cannot include anything already committed to or paid for prior to a decision.
• cannot include in kind costs (as match or expenditure).
• cannot include any other Council sources of match funding (windfarm and UKSP funding is accepted)
• will not be accepted after the published deadline date.
• cannot be accepted from Organisations with outstanding monitoring or compliance issues for other Council managed funding.

DECISION-MAKING PROCESS

On receipt of completed applications by 12 noon on 28 March 2025 there will be a compliance check of the application and supporting documents and then applications will be scored by a scoring panel using a Scoring Framework.  No late applications will be accepted.   Applications which have not cleared compliance checks by the time of the preparations for the appropriate Committee will be withdrawn.

The Scoring Panel will submit a report to the Education, Skills and Community Wellbeing Committee on 22 April 2025 with recommendations for awards. The awards are made at Members discretion.

If your funding application is successful, you will be required to sign an acceptance form to state that you accept our award conditions before we make any payment to you.  Up to £10,000 of your award will ordinarily be paid on receipt of this acceptance, subject to agreement by the Lead Officer/Monitoring Officer and the final balance paid on submission of final monitoring.

Further details

For more information or support please contact your local Ward Officer or email coastalbenefitfund@dumgal.gov.uk

Privacy

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