Apply now for Volunteering Wales Strategic Grants
The Volunteering Wales Strategic Grant scheme is now open for projects that will look long-term at volunteering and improve volunteering practices in Wales.
The aim of the Volunteering Wales Strategic Grant (VWSG) scheme is to support a small number of strategic projects to build on and learn from the new or improved approaches to volunteering across Wales.
2025-28 ROUND TWO
For this round of funding, high quality proposals are welcome from the following priority areas:
Health and social care
Education and young people
Environment/climate emergency
Arts/culture/sport
Welsh language/communities
GRANT OBJECTIVES
The VWSG scheme aims to unlock the strategic potential of volunteering over the longer term by:
Identify and explore the strategic need and opportunities for removing barriers to volunteering (at scale)
Strengthen or explore partnerships within and between the third, private and public sector
Supporting the upscaling of delivery models and strategic infrastructure and volunteer organisations to embed emerging good practise
Undertake thorough learning around equality and inclusion in volunteering and exploring how this impacts communities and their engagement
Lever further investment, both financial and non-financial
Create a repository of learning to be shared with Wales’ growing Volunteering Community of Practice
PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS
There’s a lot to learn from recipients of the Volunteering Wales Strategic Grants who have been leading pioneering projects that look long-term at volunteering and how we can unlock its potential.
Here are some examples of the projects and the resources they’ve created.
Sported– Wales Strategic Volunteering Project, aims to enhance the capacity and impact of board, trustee, and management-level volunteering for community groups across Wales delivering sport and physical activities.
It consists of two stages: firstly, understanding and reporting on the landscape of volunteering at this level within community groups in Wales, and, secondly, providing a series of recommendations to stakeholders within the sector on how best to achieve such an increase in capacity and impact.
In doing so, the project looks to connect with, and support, the Welsh Government’s Well-being of Future Generations Act. In particular, the project focuses on the skills and development of volunteers (a prosperous Wales), an inclusive and accessible volunteering sector (a more equal Wales), and a volunteer community promoting and protecting local communities as well as engaging in sports and recreation (a Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language)
Both reports can be found on The Knowledge Hub: Sported – Research report Sported – Solutions report
Innovate Trust – Volunteering Hub: Insight is Innovate Trust’s free community app for adults with learning disabilities. Here, individuals can join activities, post updates and make friends. Insight aims to combat isolation through providing a person-centred app where individuals can be digitally included in a safe, supportive place.
Through this evaluation they found that individuals wanted to volunteer and to access suitable information about volunteering in a space where they already feel safe. Here, the idea of a Volunteering Hub was born.
You can find out more on The Knowledge Hub: Innovate Trust – Volunteering Hub
TO APPLY
The closing date for applicants is Friday 22 May 2026, 11.59 pm. Please read the full guidance about the scheme before applying.
If you’re interested in applying, please visit our Volunteering Wales Strategic Grant page.