Community fund

The Community Fund is available to groups and organisations, but not to private individuals. Applicants can include:

• community groups
• voluntary groups
• development trusts
• social enterprises
• charities
• local authorities

Eligible activities need to support the objectives of the fund, promoting the use, management and ownership of woodlands by communities.

Funding can support activities on Scotland’s national forests and land.

The minimum requirement is that:

• the applicant has a bank account
• community-based groups have a basic constitution

Visit the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) for more information on constitutions. 

These include activities associated with woodland-based:

• school care clubs and play schemes
• schemes that promote physical activity such as:
  • walking
  • safe routes to school
  • natural play  
  • adventure play
• volunteer group establishment and the induction of volunteers
• developing volunteers through:
  • skills training
  • health improvement
  • community development
• projects promoting Scottish Gaelic

They also include activities such as:

• providing resources to involve communities in the decision making process of managing their local woodland
• costs incurred by community bodies, such as valuation costs, when developing Community Asset Transfer Scheme applications (funding will not normally cover legal fees)
• developing materials (in appropriate languages, including Scottish Gaelic) that promote the health and well-being benefits of using woodlands

Applicants requesting funding for salaries should note that funding can only be awarded for the current financial year. 

There is no guarantee that funding will be available in future years.

Does your project involve engaging under-represented groups? You may wish to consider Scottish Forestry’s Woods for All programme as a more appropriate source of funding.

Funding will not be rewarded for:

• activities supported under the Scotland Rural Development Programme

  Scotland Rural Development Programme (gov.Scot website)

• formal education activities, including forest schools and forest kindergarten

  Advice and support for these activities can be accessed via Outdoor and Woodland Learning Scotland:

  Visit OWL Scotland (OWL Scotland website)

• activities that will take participants away from formal education during school time
• continued professional development activities for staff
• funding staff who work for public sector organisations such as local authorities
• funding staff for activities beyond the scope of the Community Fund
• the acquisition of:
  • fixed assets such as land and buildings
  • mobile assets for public sector organisations 

Funding will not be paid in advance and can only be claimed retrospectively. 

All claims must be made within the financial year in which the funding was awarded.

There are 2 separate application processes:

1. for applications up to £1000 via an application letter
2. for applications above £1000 via an application form

The level of funding will be on a sliding scale as follows:

• up to 100% for projects with a total cost of up to £1,000
• up to 90% for projects with a total cost of between £1,001 and £5,000
• up to 75% for projects with a total cost exceeding £5,000