Oxford City Council has awarded £388,000 of grant funding to 86 community groups and voluntary organisations – helping them to support local people across Oxford.
Oxford is the UK's second most unequal city and the Council’s grants programme provides crucial financial support to organisations working to reduce inequality through the delivery of essential services, strategic projects, and community-led initiatives.
The Council has provided this latest funding through the Oxford Community Impact Fund (OCIF) programme, which is a three year fund that first started in 2022. It is already supporting essential services such as advice centres and domestic abuse support, with core funding maintained for these at the current level until March 2028.
Decisions have now been announced on two rounds of funding:
- Big Ideas Fund: Providing funding of £338,000 per year covering the period of 2025-2028.
- Small Grants (2025 Round 1): Providing funding of £50,000 (with £34,000 to follow in round 2), with a maximum of £3000 per organisation ensuring accessibility for smaller community groups.
All these grants have been awarded to organisations assessed on their work to reduce inequality and attract external funding to Oxford.
Big Ideas Fund 2025-28
The Council has awarded funding to 45 organisations across Oxford totalling £338,000 per annum, organisations will receive funding for three years.
These organisations are:
Ark-T Centre, Arts at the Old Fire Station, Aspire Oxfordshire, Asylum Welcome, Be Free Young Carers, Blackbird Leys Adventure Playground, Cowley Road Works, Cutteslowe Greenhouse Limited, Donnington Doorstep, EMBS Community College Limited, Emmaus Oxford, Fusion Arts, Home-Start, IF Oxford, In-Spire Sounds, Justice in Motion, Leys CDI, Makespace Oxford, Mandala Theatre, Museum of Modern Art, My Life My Choice, MyVision, OVADA, Oxford Community Action, Oxford Contemporary Music, Film Oxford, Oxford Hub, Oxford Mutual Aid, Oxford Pride, Oxford Youth Enterprise, Oxfordshire Chinese Community and Advice Centre, Oxfordshire Play Association, Peeple, Pegasus Theatre, Refugee Resource, Rose Hill Junior Youth Club, Sobell House, Survivor Space, T(ART) Productions, The Oxford Playhouse, The Parasol Project, The Story Museum, WASTE2TASTE, and Yellow Submarine.
Small Grants Fund 2025-6 (Round 1)
The Council has awarded funding to 41 organisations across Oxford, with funding totaling £50,000 overall.
These organisations are:
Parents And Children Together, Wild Boor Ideas, Fight Against Blindness (Fab), Rose Hill Community Larder, Oxford Opera Trust Cio, Response Organisation, Wood Farm Youth Centre, Action Deafness, Botley Bridges, Damascus Rose Kitchen, Blackbird Leys Boxing Club, Dovecote Voluntary Parent Committee, East Oxford Stay and Play, Fight Against Blindness, Headway Thames Valley Limited, Body Politic, Littlemore Hub, Syrian Sisters, Music at Oxford, Elmore Community Services, Read Easy Oxford, The Oxford Preservation Trust, Lowland Rescue, Oxford Afrobeats Festival, Iranian Community Network (ICN), Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Oxford Poetry Library, Tandem Collective, Oxford Health Charity (OHC), Oxford Peoples Theatre, MuMo Creative, Oxford Lindy Hoppers, Syrian Community Oxfordshire (SYRCOX), The Oxford Voice, The Porch, Oxfordshire Asian Women's Voice, WEMPOWERED CIC, Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon, South Oxford Community-Association, The Good Gym, and Wood Farm Youth Centre.
It is estimated that for every £1 that the Council invests in local community organisations and groups through grant funding, this investment results in more than £15.92 of additional funding/earned income per organisation - helping to strengthen communities across the city.
This year, over half (51%) of applicants were new applicants.
You can learn more by visiting our grant funding webpages.
Comment
"We’ve streamlined our community grants programme and this year we’ve changed the criteria to provide a tight focus on work to reduce inequality in Oxford. We’re the UK’s second most unequal city and these grants will be spent on tackling this ugly scar on our beautiful city.
"It is great news that we have been able to support so many community groups and organisations through this latest round of funding – and especially so many new groups. I can’t wait to visit as many of these projects as possible to see for myself the impact these funds will have on local communities and the difference made to people’s lives.”
Councillor Linda Smith, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities
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