Voluntary Action Shetland and Shetland Islands Council have trained staff to help community groups and voluntary organisations to search for external funding opportunities. This pilot project is in place until September 2013 and has been jointly funded by Shetland Islands Council and the Shetland LEADER programme.

Shetland 4 Community is a simple search engine designed solely for use by community groups and voluntary organisations. Shetland 4 Community is free to use and available on-line. To register and carry out searches please go to:

http://www.open4community.info/shetland/Default.aspx

For further information, please view flyer.

Grant Advisor

Grant Advisor is an internal funding tool that can carry out more detailed searches. Grant Advisor can identify funding sources for the public, private, voluntary and learning sectors . A number of staff within the Council and Voluntary Action Shetland have access to this software. The officers listed below may be contacted to help with you funding searches.

Voluntary Action Shetland staff who can help with Grant Advisor are:
Anne Robertson: 01595 743902
Wendy Hand: 01595 743905

Hopefully both Grant Advisor and Shetland 4 Communities will help to attract more external funding into Shetland for local projects and services. In order to gauge the success of these systems, if you secure external funding as a result of using either funding tool please let us know. Any other feedback is welcome too.

Funding Scotland is a social enterprise which provides an online platform for organisations seeking funding (Fund Seekers), and organisations offering funding (Funders),

The Find Funders Section of the Shetland Community Toolkit gives a comprehensive guide to fundraising, including how to make an effective application, and sources of funding.

Voluntary Action Shetland (VAS) is the local distributor for BBC Children in Need Small Grant Welfare Scheme. VAS welcomes applications from professionals working with children such as health visitors, social workers and head teachers.

VAS is also the local agent for Rural Direct. Rural Direct is a service designed to help rural community organisations to access funding from a range of sources including the new Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP). Rural Direct is a national service delivered locally by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO).

Whether you're looking to refurbish your village hall, develop new local amenities and services, or work out a long term plan for your community's future development, funding is available to help you. We can help you get hold of it.

For further information on Rural Direct, or to help you to source funding for your group,
please contact: Wendy Hand, VAS Development Worker 01595 743905 wendy.hand@shetland.org

Links to other sites with funding information

The Find Funders Section of the Shetland Community Toolkit gives a comprehensive guide to fundraising, including how to make an effective application, and sources of funding.

The government website Voluntary and community groups - applying for funding provides further information on government and lottery funding.

Big Lottery Website gives information on their programmes and criteria.

SCVO Funding provides guidance on what kind of funds are out there, who is providing them and how to access them, as well as some information on activities that enable self-generation of funds (such as trading) and links to best practice in fundraising.