Grant programme

CAF Resilience Fund

A £40 million funding programme supporting communities hardest hit by the Covid 19 Pandemic.

Read the report

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We help donors to give more impactfully and charities to build their resilience so they can do more of their life-changing work.

Personal giving From one-off donations to long-term giving, or designing your personal philanthropic strategy, we work together to help you realise your giving ambitions. Corporate giving You have the vision for making a difference. So do we. We help you plan how to give based on your goals. Services for charities Helping your charity or social enterprise become more resilient. Insights Discover the latest insights for donors and charitable organisations to help create a greater impact About us We are a leading charity, working at the centre of the giving world. We help donors to give more impactfully and charities to build their resilience so they can do more of their life-changing work. Donate  
 
 
 

Personal giving

From one-off donations to long-term giving, or designing your personal philanthropic strategy, we work together to help you realise your giving ambitions.

DISCOVER OUR PERSONAL GIVING SOLUTIONS

Corporate giving

You have the vision for making a difference. So do we. We help you plan how to give based on your goals.

DISCOVER OUR CORPORATE GIVING SOLUTIONS

Services for charities

Helping your charity or social enterprise become more resilient.

DISCOVER HOW WE SUPPORT CHARITIES

Insights

Discover the latest insights for donors and charitable organisations to help create a greater impact

Explore

About us

We are a leading charity, working at the centre of the giving world. We help donors to give more impactfully and charities to build their resilience so they can do more of their life-changing work.

Find out more about CAF

Overview of the CAF Resilience Fund

The CAF Resilience Fund is a £40 million grant programme generously funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the insurance and long-term savings industry as part of the Covid-19 Support Fund.

Funding was split into two phases:

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Phase one (2020-21)

During phase one, £20 million was distributed to 645 charitable organisations to help them survive. Many were adapting quickly to meet the changing needs of communities.

Phase two (2022-23)

Phase two was designed to support charitable organisations to deliver their services and help them to become more resilient.

The grants were targeted at three areas that had been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

What was different about this grant programme?

We wanted to ensure that the funding made a lasting impact. In phase two, we sought out charitable organisations that were making a real difference in communities that had been particularly affected by Covid-19, those that:

•    Support people living with a disability
•    Work with Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities
•    Encourage young adult reskilling for those aged 16 to 35 years

The organisations received main grants up to £350,000 to support service delivery, core-costs and resilience building in their organisation. They also received up to £20,000 to pay for external expertise to help them achieve their resilience goals.

We also ran a tailored support programme to bring together and support these charities as they make their journey to becoming more resilient organisations.

Read more in our impact report here

The impact – in their own words

The programme has laid down the foundations for building resilience in almost all the 102 organisations we supported with 52% saying that they felt that the change had been transformational for their organisation.

Watch Doncaster Housing for Young People's (DHYP) journey

Doncaster Housing for Young People (DHYP) were one of the organisations who received support in phase two. Watch the video to discover what the programme has meant to them and the young people they help.

Our key learnings

During the process of designing, delivering and evaluating the impact of the CAF Resilience Fund we’ve learnt some valuable lessons. We hope they will help more charities to focus on their resilience and inspire other donors and funders to prioritise the approach we took.

Short and long-term impact is possible

There can be quick wins with a relatively short-term funding programme (16 months) laying down the foundations for ongoing and longer-term resilience work.

It’s not just about the money

Whilst the grants were vital, our tailored support programme was the key to success for this resilience work.

A framework is necessary

Providing a resilience framework helped our funded organisations to define ambitions, shape priorities, plan work, hold themselves accountable and evidence change.

CAF Resilience Fund Sector Partners

CAF worked with sector partners to ensure the resilience funding got to where it was needed most in the three cause areas. Using their knowledge, contacts and expertise, these partners provided complementary granting to charities and community organisations to expand the reach and impact of the funds. Find out more about our sector partners.

Find out more


The funding for the CAF Resilience Fund has been jointly provided by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Community Match Challenge funding scheme as part of the Government's £750 million coronavirus support package for charities along with matched funding from the Covid-19 Support Fund created by the insurance and long-term savings industry.

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