Applications for the 2026 Community Fund are now open.
Head to our website to apply. All submissions must be received by Friday 20 November 2026.
Recently awarded
When awarding funding, we focus on activities that support Cory’s wider goals of:
- Enhancing the local environment
- Preventing waste and growing the reuse economy
- Developing skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM), sustainability, recycling, reuse, and waste management, as well as on the River Thames
In 2025, Cory distributed funding to some of the following organisations:
The Isle of Dogs Sea Cadet Unit is a youth organisation that provides opportunities for young people in the Isle of Dogs area to participate in a variety of water-based activities, as well as other activities during the winter months. The Unit is based in two state schools on the Isle of Dogs, George Green's School and Canary Wharf College, and is open to young people from all backgrounds, genders, and religions.
As well as helping fund admin for the unit, Cory has been able to give cadets first-hand insights into running a river-based business, and help fund a legacy programme that enables Cadets to attend RYA Regional Training Windsurfing and Regional Winter Training.
"We have gone from strength to strength. We are so grateful to Cory for helping us and being the first company to believe in us. You have changed a lot of lives for the better and made memories that will never be forgotten. From us all: thank you."
Paul Brew, Owner & Director of City Sailing and Training
Mama2Mama is like a food bank but for baby essentials. Based in Woolwich, the team collect new and pre-loved items to supply to families in their local community, catering from newborns up to three-year-olds. With funds from the Cory Community Fund, Mama2Mama were able to distribute 120 Bedtime Packs to vulnerable families, helping children access essentials that promote comfort, dignity, and positive bedtime routines.
The grant also enabled their team to deliver both environmental and social impact, raising awareness of the importance of reusing quality items and ensuring that children still felt cared for while preventing valuable resources from going to waste.
“The support from the Cory Community Fund has enabled us to provide practical help to hundreds of children and families facing hardship. Knowing that we have been able to ease some of the pressure families face and bring comfort, dignity, and joy to children's lives is incredibly rewarding. The grant not only helped us provide 120 essential Bedtime Packs but the £2,000 contribution towards our core costs helped us keep staff in place to coordinate the project. This ensured valuable resources reached those who needed them most rather than going to waste. We are immensely grateful to Cory for helping us make such a meaningful difference in our community.”
Victoria Agboluaje, Finance & Income Development Lead at Mama2Mama
Since 2022, The Woodshop of Recycled Delights (WoRD) has been addressing the pressing issue of wood waste, while harnessing its potential.
They empower people to up-cycle waste wood, get involved in their local green spaces, and share resources. They do this by teaching woodworking workshops, creating volunteering opportunities, and constructing sustainable timber infrastructure for community projects across London. Cory’s Community Fund has supported their project that transforms waste timber into assets for community gardens in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
Due to WoRD’s ongoing success, Cory has provided additional funding in 2026 - beyond the Community Fund - to enable their team to extend their community-led carpentry, reuse and environmental learning programme, building on strong demand and proven impact.
"This grant has enabled WoRD to continue and deepen its work in an area of great need, allowing us to make impact where it’s most important. Thank you!"
Harry Morgan, Co-Founder and Director of the Woodshop of Recycled Delights
London Legacy is a global campaign by Common Purpose which invests in young people across the world so they can become a connected generation of leaders with a clear vision for what their legacy will be. Read the 2025 Impact Report here, and see some of the highlights from the April event here.
“We need a new generation of young leaders to come through who have the commitment and ability to bridge divides. We all need to hear and support our young people with their big ideas and long-term thinking. Legacy is Common Purpose’s way of investing in the next generation but we cannot do that without the support of organisations like Cory. Our local Legacy sponsorship consortia enable us to offer the programme completely free-of-charge to 18-25 year-olds. Cory’s sponsorship went beyond the purely financial, as senior leaders took the time to meet and interact with our participant group, something that delivered mutual benefits.“
Marie Mohan, Managing Director at Social Value
Thurrock Play Network is a non-profit charity that supports the wider community, encouraging affordable activities that are beneficial for mental, social, and physical wellbeing. The organisation encourages creativity and recycling, and sees sustainability as a key element to their success. The charity runs a local Pyramid Resource Centre which receives donations of items from businesses and individuals that might otherwise go to landfill. These everyday items are used as handicraft materials and in creative ventures.
Over the years, Thurrock has used funding to employ play rangers to work in local parks, support parents and children in schools, and organise community events such as their National Play Day in August.
We fund groups and projects that play a role in strengthening local communities, with a particular focus on activities that support Cory’s wider goals of:
- Enhancing the local environment
- Preventing waste and growing the reuse economy
- Developing skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM), sustainability, recycling, reuse, and waste management, as well as on the River Thames
Grants are available to groups based in the boroughs in which Cory operates:
- Barking and Dagenham
- Bexley
- City of London
- Gravesham
- Greenwich
- Hammersmith and Fulham
- Havering
- Hertfordshire
- Kensington and Chelsea
- Lambeth
- Newham
- Redbridge
- Thurrock
- Tower Hamlets
- Wandsworth
- Westminster
You can apply if your organisation is a:
- Voluntary or community organisation
- Registered charity
- Constituted group or club
- Not-for-profit company or community interest company
We are unable to accept applications from:
- Statutory bodies
- Schools
- Individuals
- Sole traders
- Companies that can pay profits to directors, shareholders or members (including companies limited by shares)
- Organisations based outside the UK
- Organisations that don’t have at least two people on their board or committee who aren’t married, in a civil partnership, in a long-term relationship, living together at the same address, or related by blood
- One organisation applying on behalf of another
Cory can fund:
- Your organisation’s running costs
- Essential items and equipment
- Capital project costs
- One-off events
- Staff costs
- Training costs
- Volunteer expenses
We are unable to fund:
- Alcohol
- Contingency costs, loans, endowments or interest
- Profit-making/fundraising activities
- VAT you can reclaim
- Statutory activities
- Overseas travel
- Campaigning activities
- Religious activities (we can fund religious organisations if your project benefits the wider community and doesn’t include religious content)
- Political or lobbying activities
Cory’s employee Community Fund Committee review and score projects against a number of criteria, including whether the project goals are clearly outlined, whether the project is aligned with the application criteria and whether it has been clearly defined how the project will help the community.
We might get in touch to talk to you about your application before making our selection.
You will be informed via email and / or telephone whether your application has been successful.
All successful recipients will be asked to sign a funding agreement, which means the project will be delivered in accordance with the application as far as possible and will complete a project monitoring form on the project once the funding cycle is completed.
If you make small changes to your activities, or what you want to spend the money on, that’s okay, as long as you’re still using the funding to carry out the project you told us about in your application. However, you should contact us if:
- The main contact for your project changes
- You’ve finished the project and you have more than £1,000 of the Cory funding left over
- You want to make significant changes to the project or spend the money on very different things
- You can’t carry out the project or activities for any reason
If you are successful, we’ll require your organisation’s bank account details. When the funding arrives in your account, you can start spending it one the activities you told us about in your application.
Please keep records of the things you spend your funding on – and keep track of how it fits with your application. We want to make sure that the funding is being spent the way you said it would. Keeping bank statements can be a good record of what you’ve spent.
We may ask for updates on your activities and project. We may also ask to see copies of receipts, invoices or bank statements relating to your project for at least seven years.
If you’re successful in receiving a grant from the Cory Community Fund, we will publish details of your project and how we’ve supported it in our sustainability report, and may request photos from you. We may also ask that we feature your project in other materials, such as on our website, LinkedIn page, Twitter or our Annual Report.
We encourage you to share the good news too, and to keep telling everyone about the difference your project is making to your community. If you’d like to use our logo on your communications, you can get it touch with us.