Supporting our Communities
Our Winter Wishes Fund provides grants of up to £1,000 to help support our communities over the festive period.
For many, Christmas is a time of joy and celebration. But for others, it can bring financial strain, loneliness, emotional challenges, and feelings of social isolation.
Our Winter Wishes Fund supports not-for-profit groups and organisations to deliver projects that help our communities and customers during the festive season. Grants of £300 to £1,000 are awarded to initiatives and projects that actively provide support to those most vulnerable in our communities.
Key priorities of the Winter Wishes Fund
This winter, we’re focusing our Winter Wishes Fund on five key priorities:
- Magic moments for children – Projects that create joyful, magical Christmas experiences for children who might otherwise miss out. Funding will ensure every child feels seen, celebrated, and surrounded by love and Christmas spirit. Examples include special gifts, festive outings, warm meals, or unique holiday experiences.
- Food insecurity and food poverty – Projects that support those struggling with basic needs during the festive season. Examples include food hampers, warm packs, hot meals, advice and support services.
- Mental health - Projects that promote emotional wellbeing during December. Examples include support groups, creative therapy sessions and drop-in wellbeing services.
- Loneliness and isolation – Projects that connect people who may feel alone or disconnected during winter. Examples include Christmas dinners, creative community hubs, intergenerational activities, befriending schemes.
- Community-led action – Community-led initiatives that bring people together and tackle hardship or loneliness. Examples include volunteer-led initiatives, neighbourhood support schemes, festive community events.
Eligibility
Your project must take place within one of our key operating areas.
For more details, please view our map of SNG homes 
which shows where the homes we manage are located.
Please review our application guidance [pdf, 252KB] to see the full list of eligibility requirements.
Key dates
- Applications open: 1 October 2025
- Deadline to apply: 29 October 2025
- Successful applicants notified by: 21 November 2025
- Projection completion deadline: Please note all projects must be completed by 28 February 2026 (all funds must be spent by this date).
FAQs
We’re a leading housing association, striving to provide quality, affordable homes and communities with over 85,000 homes across the South of England. Core areas include Berkshire, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, London, Oxfordshire, the Isle of Wight, the West of England and Wiltshire.
We prioritise projects that are clearly working with SNG communities and can demonstrate that our customers will benefit from the project activities.
To apply for this fund, you must be a local not-for-profit group, community organisation, or registered charity and you must be able to demonstrate how your project will benefit SNG customers.
Only one project per organisation will be funded, and activities must take place in an SNG community .
If you're unsure whether your project is eligible, email us at grants@sng.org.uk.
To apply for funding, you’ll need to register your project on the ActionFunder website . ActionFunder is a digital fundraising platform that connects funders with community projects.
By adding your project to ActionFunder, you will have the potential to match with multiple different funding pots, not just our Winter Wishes Fund. When registering your project, you will be asked for some key information about your project. You’ll need to:
- Pitch your project - Identify why your project is needed and what you intend to deliver. You have the option to provide this information in written form or submit a video pitch describing your project idea, why it is needed and why you are best placed to deliver.
- Submit a delivery plan – Provide more detailed information about how much your project will cost and what the impact of your activities will be. You will need to provide a budget breakdown, as well as information about who will benefit from project and how. Try to link this back to your problem statement where possible.
Additional information about the Winter Wishes Fund
Should we offer you funding, you will have the opportunity to accept or reject the grant via the ActionFunder platform. Any funding offer will be conditional to passing ActionFunder’s due diligence checks.
You will be required to complete a short reporting form at the end of your project including information about your beneficiaries and key project outcomes. At the point of accepting your funding offer, you will be able to access these reporting forms via the ActionFunder platform.
By uploading your data to ActionFunder, you consent to the platform’s terms and conditions which allows for the material you upload to be used for marketing and promotional purposes by both SNG and ActionFunder. Please read ActionFunder’s terms of use for more information.