Afghanistan Veterans Fund

New funding has become available for organisations under the Afghanistan Veterans Fund.

The fund aims to increase capacity in services and initiatives that offer supportive comradeship, engagement and wellbeing efforts for those in the Armed Forces community impacted by events in Afghanistan, and the wider veterans community

Please note there are 4 separate funding strands, and you can only apply to one strand.

Strand 1: Supporting veterans’ community mental health

This strand is for clinical treatment providers who the AFCFT say should ideally be registered with the Contact/RCPsych Quality Network for Veterans Mental Health Services.

Grants of up to £100K are available.

Strand 2: Increasing supportive comradeship, connectedness and engagement to improve wellbeing, resilience and good mental health

This Strand will award grants to Armed Forces charities that can act as a Lead Organisation which can run and deliver grant programmes making small grants to Regimental and Service Associations, to enable them to develop new approaches to deliver supportive comradeship, connectiveness and engagement activities with veterans.

Grants of up to £300K are available.

Strand 3: Enabling veterans support organisations to support Afghanistan refugees in the UK

Under this Strand, grants will be awarded to Armed Forces charities with experience of providing complex and engaging volunteering opportunities for veterans. Grants are available to develop and deliver UK-wide volunteering programmes for veterans to enable veterans to give support to organisations who are aiming to welcome Afghan people.

Grants of up to £100K are available.

Strand 4: Regional and more localised projects that increase capacity in services & initiatives that offer support, comradeship, engagement and wellbeing efforts

Grants of up to £35,000 are available.

Which organisations are eligible to apply?

To be eligible for this funding under Strands 1-3, you must be:

• a registered charity that specifically supports Armed Forces communities, that has been registered for at least three years at the time of your application.

In addition, under Strand 4 only, the following types of organisations can also apply:

• a registered charity that specifically supports Armed Forces communities, that has been registered for at least two years at the time of your application.
• a registered charity with substantial recent experience of supporting Armed Forces communities that has been registered for at least two years at the time of your application; or
• A Community Interest Company (CIC) that specifically supports Armed Forces communities, that has been registered for at least two years at the time of your application.

Deadlines and dates to note:

The closing date for applications is 17th January 2022.

You will receive a decision by the end of March 2022.

Applications, further information and detailed guidance can be found here:

https://covenantfund.org.uk/programme/afghanistan-veterans-fund/