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Urgent appeal: Surviving Winter
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Surviving Winter

The Surviving Winter Fund offers financial support to the people most at risk in Cornwall, helping them to stay warm, active and healthy.

These funds can be accessed through a wide range of referral agencies throughout the county and are to help households genuinely in need of support. This year the Surviving Winter Fund has been supported by Household Support Funding to reach even more vulnerable households.

You must report back on previous funding before requesting a top-up from the Crisis Fund or Surviving Winter Fund. Please read the guidelines carefully before sending your application and ensure that you have given a full predicted breakdown of spend; without this we are unable to complete our assessment.

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Requirements Timeline Funded projects Apply Now

Grant Categories:

  • Open
  • Community grants
  • Crisis funding
  • Fuel poverty / financial hardship
Grant open: 05/01/2026
Applications by: 25/02/2026
Decision date: Rolling
Area: Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
Grant value: Up to £5,000 per group

Grant requirements

To apply for a grant your organisation must meet the general Eligibility criteria. In addition to this, you must also meet the specific criteria of the grant listed below:

Who can apply:

Third party organisations can include but are not limited to:
  • Registered charities and voluntary organisations
  • Food banks

What it will support:

The types of support that can be offered:
  • Cash awards
  • Vouchers
  • Tangible items (i.e. clothing or household items)
  • Eligible spend includes:
  • Food – support with food whether directly or through vouchers or cash
  • Energy and water – support with energy costs for any form of fuel used for domestic heating, cooking or lighting. Support with water bills
  • Essentials linked to energy and water . For example insulation or energy efficient items which reduce bills, the purchase of equipment such as fridges, freezers, ovens, slow cookers or costs associated with obtaining these essentials such as delivery and installation.
  • Wider essentials – including, but not limited to, other bills including broadband or phone bills, clothing, sanitary and hygiene products and essential transport-related costs such as repairing a car, buying a bicycle or paying for fuel. This list is not exhaustive.
  • Housing costs – in exceptional cases of genuine emergency where existing housing support schemes do not meet this exceptional need, the fund can support housing costs.
  • Administrative costs – this includes reasonable costs incurred administering the scheme of up to 10% of the amount requested. For example: staff costs, advertising to raise awareness of the scheme, web page design, printing application forms, small IT changes.
Organisations can apply for between £500 and £5,000 depending on capacity. They then distribute funds at their discretion to people most at risk, to help them stay well and warm during the winter months. These are normally people who already use the organisation’s service and are known to them.
We ask that small amounts of money, usually £50 to a maximum of:
  • £175 for households without children,
  • £250 for households with up to 3 children and
  • £300 for households with four or more children
In exceptional circumstances the Foundation’s Advisory Panel can be asked to consider a specific request for a larger grant. An organisation can also apply for a top-up grant once its initial fund is used up and reporting has been provided to CCF (please see below for the reporting requirements).

We ask each organisation to complete a summary sheet when funds are distributed to households, this will be included in your outcome email and will form evidence of the grant spend. We will also send you an online monitoring form to complete where you will be able to attach the summary sheet. Both documents form part of the reporting requirements and need to be completed.

The above needs to have been completed before requesting a top-up.

As part of the Household Support funding, we are asked to capture certain information for Cornwall Council. So please let us know a breakdown of your estimated costs for food, energy and water, essentials linked to energy, wider essentials and housing costs separately for vulnerable households with children, households with pensioners, disabled people and any other vulnerable households. We would also like you to identify how will you be offering this support i.e. through cash, vouchers, tangible items and/or other means.

For example:

14 households with children in total (we need to know how many households in total will be supported and where households are receiving multiple forms of support i.e. for food and electric please only count the household once under the below categories where they will be receiving the greater support from). 

  1. Food: 3 households x £10 each = £30 (distributed by cash)
  2. Energy and water: 4 households x £20 each = £80 (distributed by vouchers)
  3. Essentials linked to energy and water: 5 households x £20 each = £100 (distributed by tangible items)
  4. Wider essentials: 2 households x £30 each = £60 (distributed by other means)

10 households with pensioners

Breakdown like example above.

Without receiving a breakdown like the above example, we are unable to process your application and please remember no double counting!

More information and examples of reporting have been outlined in the Surviving Winter Fund Guidelines.

Eligible spend does not include:
  • Advice services such as debt advice
  • Mortgage costs

Surviving Winter is an annual campaign supported by a wide range of CCF donors. We also receive a donation from the Household Support Fund, from Cornwall Council enabling us to reach even more vulnerable households.

Ready to apply?

If you meet the eligibility criteria and are ready to submit an application, apply at the bottom of this page.

Apply now

Not sure where to start?

If this is your first time applying to us start by reading the Application Process & Guidance. Here you can find useful information and resources to guide you through the application process.

If you’d like to speak to our Outreach Officer you can find contact details at the bottom of this page.

Key dates & decisions

Below are the key dates to note for this grant.
Application open: 5th January 2026
Application deadline: 25th February 2026
Panel discussion: Reviewed on a rolling basis
Grant decisions: Reviewed on a rolling basis
Estimated deposit: Within one week

Deposit dates can be vary, however grants are typically paid within 10 days of the panel decision.

Grants FAQ

You might have some questions about the application process, check our grants FAQ for answers to common questions.

Start an application

If you meet the eligibility criteria and are ready to submit an application, apply at the bottom of this page.

Apply now:

You’ve checked our criteria, found the right grant for you and have all your documents ready so let’s start your application.

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If you've applied before

You’ve found the right grant so let’s get your application in. When you log into your account you’ll find that key documents are saved along with lots of information you’ve already provided.

Get support applying today

If you aren’t sure if one of our grants is right for you, you can contact our grants team on grants@cornwallfoundation.com.

For questions about this particular grant contact Lucy on the details below.

 

Lucy DeGlanville

Grants Officer

lucy.deglanville@cornwallfoundation.com

01566 779333