If you run a charity or community group in Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens or Halton, the Community Foundation for Merseyside is worth knowing well. Like other community foundations, it doesn't run one big grant programme. It manages a long list of named funds, each set up by a family, a company or a public body, and each with its own rules.
When we wrote this, around 20 of its funds were listed as open, several with separate versions for groups and for individuals. Some cover the whole Liverpool City Region. Some cover one borough. A few cover a single town, like Runcorn, Formby or Lydiate. And a good number of them fund individuals as well as groups.
The Foundation now works alongside its Lancashire sister organisation as Community Foundations for Lancashire and Merseyside, so you'll see both names on the fund pages. This guide covers the Merseyside funds.
How the funds are set up
Most funds sit in one of four groups:
- Region-wide theme funds for a cause, such as young people's mental health, women's projects or crime prevention
- Borough funds for one area, such as Halton or St Helens
- Town funds for a single place, often left as a legacy by a local resident
- Funds for individuals, usually for education, training or hardship
Most grants are small. The typical range is £500 to £5,000, with a few funds going up to £15,000 or £25,000. None of the funds we hold carries a fixed closing date, which usually means they're open until the money runs out. Several say so directly, and some note that a fund may close early if it's heavily oversubscribed. Check the "Apply Now" button on the fund's page before you start writing.
The larger funds
Youth Empowerment Scheme: £5,000 to £25,000
This is the biggest fund in the list, run with the Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside and the Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership. It pays for diversionary activity for young people under 25 who are more vulnerable to violence, exploitation or anti-social behaviour: arts, culture, sport and digital skills such as coding.
Three details matter. Halton can't apply, because it sits under Cheshire's Police and Crime Commissioner. Grants are set in proportion to your turnover, roughly half of it. And the current round asks for activity during the school holidays, including October half-term and the bonfire night period, with all money spent by 31 March 2027, so check the page for whether it's still taking applications this late in the year. Young people should also have a hand in designing or evaluating the work.
Liverpool ONE Foundation: up to £15,000 a year for two years
For organisations working on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people up to 25, anywhere in the Liverpool City Region. It can pay for salaries of counsellors and support workers, peer mentoring and resilience projects.
This one has a strict test: your organisation must have mental health as a core purpose in its charitable objects, not just as one project among many. Your request also shouldn't exceed your annual income.
Merseyside Women's Fund: up to £7,000
For projects that help the most marginalised women and girls, across confidence and self-belief, domestic violence and abuse, mental health and social isolation. The Merseyside budget for this round is just under £70,000, enough for about ten grants at the full amount.
Your organisation has to be women-led, meaning a female founder or chief executive, or a majority of women on the board, with a track record of work for women.
Merseyside Police Community Cashback Fund: up to £5,000
Paid for with money recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act. It backs grassroots crime prevention: community cohesion, preventing hate crime, and equality and inclusion work. The budget covers about 20 grants across Merseyside, with priority for high-harm areas. Your group must have existed for at least 12 months, and groups funded in the last round can't apply this time.
Mark McQueen Foundation: up to £3,000
Set up by a Liverpool family in memory of their son, this fund supports young men struggling with their mental health, with the aim of reducing male suicide. It's unusually flexible about how it pays: a full grant of up to £3,000, match funding for up to half of a project, or underwriting an event so the Foundation covers any shortfall.
Borough and town funds
These get fewer applications because only a few places qualify:
- The LF Foundation (St Helens), up to £5,000: for families in hardship and children's education where money is the barrier. Food banks, money advice and crisis support are all named. Groups close to St Helens in Knowsley may be considered.
- Halton Foundation Fund, up to £1,500: for groups serving Halton, such as food banks, luncheon clubs, mental health and domestic abuse projects. It won't fund core salaries or general running costs.
- Alfred Shaw Trust Fund (Runcorn), up to £2,500: for groups based in Runcorn, with a focus on vulnerable and disabled young people, winter support and older people's isolation.
- John Goore Fund (Lydiate), £500 to £1,000: for groups benefiting Lydiate residents. Groups running education and training can apply for up to £1,000.
- The LEX Foundation, up to £1,000: across all of Merseyside including Halton, for LGBTQ+ groups, refugee communities, music projects and food poverty. The whole budget is about £14,000.
- Alice's WonderDance Foundation, up to £2,000: for community organisations and schools across the Liverpool City Region removing barriers to dance for children.
Funds for individuals
The Foundation has a real spread of funds for people, not just organisations:
- SWEF Enterprise Fund: for people aged 18 to 30 in Merseyside running a business that's been trading for under three years, who can show financial need. A start-up grant of up to £500, or a business grant of up to £2,000, paid into a business bank account. It's a grant, not a loan.
- Halton Foundation Learning Fund: up to £1,000 for 16 to 25 year olds in Halton facing barriers to education or training, including care leavers, young carers and young people from low-income families. It can also pay for interview clothes.
- John Goore Fund for individuals: Lydiate residents only. Up to £1,000 for study, £500 for people facing disadvantage through disability or ill health, and £250 for carers.
- Joseph Harley Fund and Sefton Education & Learning Fund: £500 for under-25s in Formby and across Sefton respectively, for education and training costs.
- Olivia Rae Foundation: up to £500 for young people taking up courses or arts activities, with priority for Wirral.
- Alice's WonderDance for individuals: up to £250 for families who need help with dancewear, classes or travel to dance.
One change to note: the Halton Foundation's hardship fund for individuals, up to £350, no longer takes applications from Runcorn residents, as that part of the fund has run out.
The rules that stop applications early
Most Merseyside funds share the same exclusions, and they catch people every round:
- Three unrelated trustees. Groups with fewer than three unrelated trustees, directors or committee members can't apply. Neither can groups made up of one family.
- No companies limited by shares. That includes CICs limited by shares. Most funds also check that a CIC's directors have equal control.
- Nothing retrospective. Costs you've already spent before a grant is offered won't be covered.
- No vehicles, reclaimable VAT or travel abroad.
- A bank statement every time. Your governing document, accounts, trustee list and safeguarding policy can be reused if you applied in the last 12 months. A recent bank statement can't.
The Foundation is also a Real Living Wage employer and encourages applicants to pay staff at the Real Living Wage or above. If your budget includes staff costs, cost them at that rate.
Finding Merseyside grants on Grants Hub
The Community Foundation for Merseyside is one of many funders in Grants Hub. We track 3,900+ open UK grants from 1,400+ funders, checked daily, so you can see these local funds next to the national programmes that might also cover your project. Search by location and cause to find the few worth your time.