Culture Recovery Fund: Continuity Support

More support to help secure the future of arts and cultural organisations who have previously been supported by the Culture Recovery Fund.

ACE are helping distribute the government’s Culture Recovery Fund, a £1.57 billion fund supporting cultural organisations through the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Who can apply: 

Recipients of a Culture Recovery Grant in round 1 or 2 or organisations that have had support from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues fund

CRF recipients at risk of no longer trading viably by March 31 2022 can apply for funding to help them into the new year

Grant range: 

The minimum amount you can apply for is £25,000 and we expect that you wouldn’t apply for more than 25% per cent of your annual turnover

Key dates: 

Application Open Date: 12pm (midday), Monday 16 August 2021.

Application Deadline: 12pm (midday), Friday 27 August 2021.

We aim to notify applicants of the outcome of their applications by the end of October 2021.

The aim of the Culture Recovery Fund: Continuity Support programme is to support cultural organisations who have received funding from the Culture Recovery Fund: Grants programme, in the first or second rounds, and can clearly demonstrate the financial need for further funding in order to be able to operate on a viable and sustainable basis by 31 January 2022.

Key Information:

Grant range

The minimum amount that can applied for is £25,000.

The limits to how much you can apply to this programme for are as follows:

• We would not expect you to apply for more than 25% per cent of your annual turnover (pre-Covid-19)
• If you are a Not for profit organisation the maximum that you can receive in total across the three rounds is £4,000,000
• If you are a Local Authority or University, the maximum that you can receive in total across the three rounds is £4,000,000
• If you are a For profit organisation or group, the maximum that you can receive in total across the three rounds is £1,500,000

Eligibility:

This round of funding is only open to organisations who have received funding from the Culture Recovery Fund: Grants programme, in the first or second rounds.

Live Music Venues who were awarded funding from the Emergency Grassroots Music Venues Fund are also eligible to apply (excluding sole traders).

Organisations that received funding via the Cultural Capital Kickstart Fund and have received funding from the Culture Recovery Fund: Grants programme, in the first or second rounds, are also eligible to apply for Continuity Support funding. 

The lead organisation (the organisation submitting the application) should be properly constituted as an organisation. The kinds of organisations that are eligible to apply include:

• limited companies registered at Companies House 
• community interest companies (CICs) registered with the CIC regulator 
• charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs) registered with the Charity Commission 
• charitable companies or charitable trusts registered with the Charity Commission
• limited liability partnerships registered at Companies House 
• partnerships established under a partnership deed governed by the Partnership Act 1890 or the Limited Partnerships Act 1907, where a signed partnership agreement in writing is in place
• community benefit and co-operative societies regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) 
• Royal Charter bodies
• statutory bodies and other public bodies including Universities and Local Authorities who run or maintain cultural services
• organisations with a museum with either Accreditation or working towards Accreditation status

Organisations must be up to date with all necessary submissions to their regulatory body. The financial statements must show that your organisation has been trading during the two- or three-year period and has not been dormant.

• Public Authority library services are not eligible to apply to this programme. 
• Culture Recovery Fund: Repayable Finance loan recipients are not eligible to apply to this programme.
• Organisations in receipt of Cultural Capital Kickstart Funding only are not eligible to apply.

If your projected reserves position on 1 November 2021 shows that you will have 12 weeks or more free cash reserves, you are still eligible to apply to the Culture Recovery Fund: Continuity Support programme, however we would expect you to explain in your application why these reserves are insufficient to support your viability, and why you need additional support from the Continuity Support fund.

Full eligibility criteria can be found in the guidance document here