Local Initiatives Fund

Local ward councillors have an annual budget of £13,000 per ward for small grants that deliver benefit to the residents of their ward. They can go towards a variety of locally run activities like:

• sports clubs
• local festivals
• youth activities
• estate community events
• environmental improvements
• education and training classes 
• pensioner outings and day trips

Provisional application deadlines

These deadlines will be confirmed in early May 2025.

• Thursday 22 May 2025: Final decisions communicated to applicants by early August 2025.
• Tuesday 23 September 2025: Final decisions communicated to applicants by early December 2025.
• Thursday 22 January 2026:  Final decisions communicated to applicants by early April 2026.

We will let you know our final decision by early April 2025 if you applied before the 16 January 2025 deadline.

We strongly advise you to contact your local councillors for each ward before applying.

The LIF normally funds projects in advance of them taking place. It is likely that funding will not be fully confirmed until two to three months after the application deadlines. We recommend that you apply at least three months before your project takes place if you need the funding before delivering your project.

If your organisation submits an application form after any of the dates above, it will be considered in the next round of applications.

If you have received a Local Initiatives Fund award since June 2023 and that project has finished, make sure you have sent all the required monitoring information before making your application. We won't be able to accept your application until we receive all of this information. 

Guidance and application form

Apply now

Previous grants

Email LocalInitiativesFund@islington.gov.uk if you would like information on previous grants. See the Democracy website for the decisions made by the Voluntary and Community Sector Committee who formally agreed all LIF grants up to March 2024.