The Cooperative Membership Fund is a community fund/ grant scheme looking for groups who want to make real change in their community. They give out grants from £100 to £2000 funded by donations from their members – and the money stays in the area it was donated. Groups don’t have to be charities, but they do have to carry out positive work in the community.
Groups can apply for funding as long as the project they have in mind
Addresses a community issue
Provides a long-term benefit to the community
Supports co-operative values and principles
and ideally is innovative in its approach
You can find the application form online
That’s the blurb, and yes, this is a sponsored post. But I have to say, this isn’t the first time that I’ve been pleased to be able to do one of these. I love the Co-operative group for its values and approach, and we shop at our local coop. Getting involved with my local community is also something I very much want to do, especially as we appear to have decided this is the local community we’re sticking with.
So what would I do that’s of long term benefit, co-operative and innovative?
I’m fascinated by the idea of more trees. On twitter I came across More Trees for Bath and North East Somerset, working with the Woodland Trust to plant trees, particularly edible varieties on public land around their local area. I’d love to do something similar here, preferably getting a group together to do the planting, look after the trees and maybe do some harvesting too. Perhaps we could work towards a local shop or market stall arrangement, to sell the produce and fund further tree purchases, or even employ someone to look after the trees themselves. I’m guessing as a project that might qualify – I might have a tweet about it with MoreTreesBane and see how they got started 
So, what would you do with a community grant – how would you put something back into your community?
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