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Community Grants Programme

One strand of the Inspiring Everyone Programme at the RAF Museum Midlands, the Community Grants Programme is designed for community groups and not-for-profit organisations, these project grants will increase inclusion, access and participation with heritage. The successful applicants will use Royal Air Force stories as the launchpads for engagement with participants.

There are two strands under which applicants can apply:

  • Flights of Fancy – for creative arts projects
  • Force-full Stories – for local and community research projects.

Projects should meet the dual aims of:

A project-funded Community Engagement and Grants Co-ordinator will lead on developing and delivering the grants programme. They will be a key source of support for potential applicants and successful grantees.

Grants Information

Grants will be distributed over three rounds and will be available from £250 to £2,000, including travel costs for participants to visit the Museum. For this reason, please consider travel expenses to the Museum when applying for your grant amount.

Round one of the grants programme will run from September 2025 – August 2026.

Grants will be awarded to organisations based in our geographical focus areas. Each Round of grants will focus on a different area within the West Midlands. More information about our current geographical focus area can be found below in the ‘geographic eligibility’ section.

Further information on payments process and guidance will be provided during the application stage.

Strands of Funding

Flights of Fancy

Project applications submitted under this strand should allow participants an opportunity to explore their creativity within the theme of the RAF. The project should produce a creative arts output which can be achieved within the applied for budget, or with the assistance of other – already secured – funding. There is no restriction on which art form is chosen: drama, dance, music, visual arts, film, photography etc. Anything which utilises participants creative expression and imagination, while achieving the dual aims above will be considered.

Force-full Stories

Projects submitted under this strand should come from community groups who aim to research and share connections between their own / local stories and those of the RAF and its personnel (past or present). Research can be shared in a variety of forms including podcasts, blogs, exhibitions or films. However, the choice of medium is entirely up to the applicants. For an idea of some of the stories the Museum has collected, please see https://www.rafstories.org/.

What we won’t fund…
  • Projects used to support any political organisations or for campaigning on any political issues
  • Projects involving the dissemination of any material that is capable of being defamatory
  • Projects without activity and outcomes that can be measured or evaluated (for example, academic research projects with no potential for measurable outcomes) will also not be considered.
Expression of Interest Form (EOI)

If you are interested in the community grants programme, please complete the attached EOI form and submit it to the Museum’s Community Engagement and Grants Coordinator via email. Organisations eligible to complete a full application form will also be invited to join an online webinar with the Community Engagement and Grants Coordinator who will explain the next stage of the applications process.

We realise that text-based applications are not suitable for everyone. If this is the case and you would like to apply through a different format, please get in touch with us by emailing community.grants@rafmuseum.org.

For any further questions on the Community grants programme or how to complete your EOI form please email community.grants@rafmuseum.org. All EOI forms should also be submitted to this email.

Geographic Eligibility

Applications must come from organisations within the red outline below.