Ready Together
Community groups and charities were already at work. On doorsteps, on helplines, at food banks and over video calls. The appeal paid for that work to carry on and to grow.
Donations reached more than 14,000 charities and community groups across the UK. They got food and medicines to people who were shielding. They funded mental health and bereavement support. They gave people a way out when home was not safe.
The appeal closed in March 2023.
The Coronavirus Appeal in numbers
- 18 March 2020
- appeal launch
- 26 March 2020
- first funds received by local charities
- £99 million
- total raised
- 14,000+
- projects supported
- £35
- smallest grant
- £307,000
- largest grant
Where the money came from: 43% from companies, 20% from government, 20% from charitable trusts and foundations, 17% from individuals.
Individual fundraisers busked, cycled, skipped marathons and did their weekly shop in fancy dress to raise money for the appeal.
“If you hadn't answered my call on that difficult day, I know that I would not have gone on from strength to strength. Just knowing that someone was on the other end of the line gave that security blanket that I needed.”
Stories from the appeal
Oasis Cardiff
Cardiff, Wales
Oasis Cardiff helps refugees and people seeking asylum settle into the city, and food is central to how it does that.
During the pandemic, a Coronavirus Appeal grant through Community Foundation Wales paid for the team and its volunteers to cook meals for the people it supports.
“Food is what brings people together and what makes people feel the same as each other.”
Monkstown Boxing Club
County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Social distancing cut people off from food and other essentials. The young members of Monkstown Boxing Club became volunteers, delivering food and running errands for neighbours who needed help.
Coronavirus Appeal funding through the Northern Ireland Community Foundation paid for the club to work with other local groups, cooking meals and taking them to people's doors.
“It was a really good thing to have the club because I was able to come and speak to people. To get those dangerous thoughts outs of my head.”
About With Friends
Norfolk, England
About With Friends works with children and adults with learning disabilities across Norfolk. A Coronavirus Appeal grant through Norfolk Community Foundation paid for the team to make its services Covid safe, so members could keep using them.
The team ran live video sessions, delivered 135 activity packs to doorsteps every week, made wellbeing calls and took cooked meals to people who were shielding.
“Their faces light up. The whole thing, they light up. We couldn't have done it without them to be honest.”
Building Bridges
Edinburgh, Scotland
Building Bridges worked with other local groups, including Asian Concern, to cook halal and vegetarian meals three times a week for low income families in Edinburgh.
A Coronavirus Appeal grant through Foundation Scotland also paid for twelve weeks of online cookery classes for families who could not get healthy food.
“What we do is provide meals to those who are vulnerable, those who are on margins. We can look back and say that we did something, we took action, we made a difference in the lives of people.”
The five needs we funded most
These figures cover the grants community foundations made across the UK. They do not include funding distributed by the trust's eleven charity partners.
- Food and essentials
- £21 million across more than 4,600 grants
- Mental health support and services
- £17.8 million across more than 3,100 grants
- Information and advice
- £9.1 million across more than 1,500 grants
- Social isolation
- £6.4 million across more than 1,300 grants
- Education
- £3.2 million across more than 590 grants
Our charity partners
Eleven charity partners received Coronavirus Appeal funding to reach people the pandemic hit hardest.
- Older people.
- One in three older people felt more anxious after the pandemic began. Age UK used appeal funding to answer more calls to its advice lines and to expand its Telephone Friendship Service.
- Young people and families.
- Barnardo's extended its remote support service to meet demand for practical and therapeutic help.
- Communities experiencing racial inequality.
- Comic Relief launched its Global Majority Fund to support communities the pandemic hit hardest.
- Local communities.
- UK Community Foundations and its network of 47 local community foundations funded more than 13,000 grassroots projects across the UK.
- Bereaved people.
- Cruse Bereavement Care supported people who could not hold funerals for the people they lost, and who were cut off from family and friends.
- Disabled people.
- Disability Action worked with a consortium of Disabled People led organisations to reach people isolated from the services they relied on.
- Mental health needs.
- The Heads Together partnership expanded its services to meet rising demand during lockdowns.
- LGBT+ communities.
- The LGBT+ Consortium gave more financial support to the grassroots groups working with LGBT+ communities through the pandemic.
- Survivors of domestic abuse.
- Refuge supported people trapped at home with a perpetrator, many with no respite from the abuse.
- Refugees and people seeking asylum.
- The Refugee Council adapted its services to reach people with urgent needs during the pandemic.
- People facing homelessness.
- Shelter trebled the number of calls it answered as lockdowns created new housing problems.
Appeal reports
Three reports track the appeal from its first twelve weeks to its close.
- Facing Covid-19 together: Coronavirus Appeal final report, June 2021 (PDF, 3MB) (opens in a new tab)
The complete record of the appeal, told through the voices of partners, fundraisers and the people they supported.
- Creating change together: Coronavirus Appeal week 24 update, August 2020 (PDF, 4.2MB) (opens in a new tab)
Where the appeal stood after 24 weeks, including how funding partners were chosen to reach unmet needs.
- Coronavirus Appeal 12 week update, June 2020 (PDF, 1.8MB) (opens in a new tab)
The first twelve weeks, covering the early grants and how needs changed week by week.
Grant data
The trust publishes its grants data through 360Giving, using the 360Giving data standard. Grants awarded since 2020 can be downloaded below, or viewed through 360Insights (opens in a new tab) and GrantNav (opens in a new tab).
- Coronavirus Appeal UKCF distributions (Excel spreadsheet, 19KB)
Grants distributed through UK Community Foundations.
- Coronavirus Appeal national partner distributions (Excel spreadsheet, 25KB)
Grants distributed through the trust's national charity partners.
- Disability Action Northern Ireland grants data (Excel spreadsheet, 32KB)
Grants distributed by Disability Action Northern Ireland.
The Disability Action Northern Ireland data must be attributed to Disability Action.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (opens in a new tab). The data is free for anyone to use and share.
