Grants available to improve access to music making

The Music for All charity believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn to play music.

The charity makes grants available to address the musical needs of community music groups and educational organisations and have now announced there next funding round of 2024 is open to applicants

Music for All support projects and initiatives taking place throughout the UK that all aim to bring music to their community and would benefit from a “helping hand” to fulfil their potential in becoming truly sustainable music programmes.

Grants are available under a number of different categories, each with their own criteria and award amounts. See the Music for All website for full details of these.

Funding Round 4 offers instrument awards in five areas for community groups/projects:

• Learning and cognitive challenges - This award is for community-based groups providing opportunities to make music to those with learning and cognitive challenges. These include but are not limited to autism, aphasia, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, attention deficit and memory loss. A grant of up to £2000 is available for this award. We welcome applications from groups operating in caring and educational settings. Applicants should be mindful that our assessors will be looking for applications which demonstrate ways in which the individuals you are working with will be engaging with music-making, as opposed to experiencing others' performances.  ​
• For groups working with those facing financial hardship - This award is open to community group applicants, providing music-making opportunities to those facing financial hardship of any age group and background. A grant of up to £2000 is available for this award.  Applicants should be able to demonstrate ways in which they nurture musical talent through their work. We would welcome applications from traditionally underrepresented groups here. Financial hardship is defined as significant difficulty or inability to meet cost of living payment from disposable income. 
• Working with children in early years age group 0-4 - This award is open to community group applicants, providing music-making opportunities to young-people aged between 0-4. We welcome applications from groups operating in caring as well as more formal educational settings. A grant of up to £2000 is available for this award.  Applicants should be able to demonstrate ways in which they nurture underprivileged young talent through their work.
• Physical mobility or accessibility needs - This award is open to community groups providing music making opportunities to those with physical mobility, coordination and/or accessibility needs. Applicants for this award will need to demonstrate how music is used within their project work and where possible, be able to illustrate previous examples of their work as well as illustrate how funds will be used to remove barriers to support music-making for the group.
• Choral Groups - This award is for community-based groups providing choral singing opportunities. We welcome applications from groups operating in caring, community and formal educational settings. A grant of up to £2000 is available for this award.  Applicants should be able to demonstrate ways in which they nurture underprivileged individuals through their choral singing work.   

Established 27 years ago, Music for All has a track record in providing support. Over the past five years alone they have awarded over £300,000 in cash grants, donated hundreds of instruments and equipment to individuals, community groups and educational establishments, and provided free ‘Learn to Play’ experiences for thousands of people.

Before applying for Community Project Funding applicants need to check the full eligibility criteria and then use the online application form to submit their application.

Full details, including the online application form, can be found at: Community Project Funding | Music For All

The next deadline for applications is no later than 8:00am on Monday 13 January 2025.

Pic credit: Acoustic guitar players by Gezer Amorim via Canva