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Voluntary Sector North West
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Manchester
M12 6FZ
Tel: 0161 276 9300
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Email: info@vsnw.org.uk

Village SOS Competition Open for Entries

27 September 2011

What could your village do with a share of £5.3 million?

The Village SOS Competition, organised by the Big Lottery Fund, will give around 250 awards of between £10,000 and £30,000 to kick start community businesses. They want to support inspiring business ideas that will bring people together in villages across the UK and support activities and enterprises that will tackle the challenges they face.They’re particularly interested in giving money to enterprising ideas that will use the skills of local people, and the area’s natural resources, land and buildings.

You must be a Village SOS member to enter the competition, so if you haven't already, join here.

There are three main entry requirements:

Your idea must be for a community enterprise.
Your village must be in a rural area and have fewer than 3,000 people living in it.
They can only accept one entry per village.

They expect a high demand for funding. To have the best chances of success, use the resources Village SOS has to offer, including the Communites, UK Forums and the Advice Line on 0845 434 9123.

Funding will not be available for:

public bodies such as schools, local authorities, parish, community and town councils
businesses that are run for private profit
individuals and sole traders
organisations based outside the UK
entries made by one organisation on behalf of another

This does not prevent ineligible organisations and individuals from working with informal community groups to develop their entries.

For everything you need to know about the competition, including help with completing your entry form, please read the competition guide.