Finances should never be a barrier for a volunteer or young member to take part in Girlguiding, which is why we have created this grant scheme to support members.
Thanks to a generous grant from Girlguiding we are able to offer a new Cost of Living Support grant. Our Cost-of-Living Support Grant is available to Division/District/Units to help subsidise adult volunteers and young members guiding costs, in particular to help pay subscriptions for 2024.
To ensure as many young people can be supported as possible, we are encouraging Units to first ask local Guiding for help before applying for this grant.
Grants will be paid by BACS into a Division/District/Unit bank account. The grant cannot be paid into a personal bank account.
About the grant
- The purpose of this grant is to ensure adult volunteers and young members most affected by the cost-of-living rises can continue to participate in Girlguiding.
- This grant scheme will operate from 1st November 2023 and closes at 5pm on 31 March 2024.
- Applications will be assessed within 28 days of receipt.
- There is no minimum or maximum grant amount.
- Grant funding can be used to cover the costs directly incurred by adult volunteers and young members participating in Girlguiding. This grant is primarily targeted at support for subscriptions, including flexible volunteering support. However, we will also consider applications for activities, events and camps, travel, and uniform if required.
Who can apply
- Any unit who requires financial assistance for subscriptions or other Girlguiding reasons.
- Applications can only be submitted by a unit, parent/carers cannot apply.
- Each unit can submit only one application.
- To ensure that grants are awarded fairly, you will be asked to confirm how many volunteers or young members need financial support.
- Applications from units with more than 12 months' worth of reserves will be rejected.
- You can apply for this grant even if you have been in receipt of other Girlguiding grants if financial support is still needed.
What can be funded?
Grant funding can be used to cover the costs directly incurred by a volunteer or young member participating in Girlguiding, including:
- Subscriptions - the subscription fee to take part in Girlguiding, including support for flexible volunteering opportunities if the unit is unable to fund e.g. a student volunteering or a volunteer who can only attend on certain days due to shift working or caring responsibilities.
- Activities/events/camps - anything included in the Unit's programme that requires a payment from the parent/carer over and above regular subscriptions.
- Travel - costs incurred by the volunteers or young member getting to/from Girlguiding activities.
- Uniform - any item of uniform.
Units should subsidise young member costs or reimburse parents/carers according to local arrangements.
If you need any help with completing this grant application including confirming if the grant will meet your needs please email
Support for talking to parents about money
It may be difficult to talk to parents/carers about money to find out if they need support. It also may not be obvious which families need additional support or they may try to hide that they are struggling. To ensure everyone feels able to speak to you about financial worries it is important to let all parents and young members in your unit know that there is support available to help them and invite them to come and speak to you.
Here is some helpful information which can help think about supporting a member living in poverty or from a low-income family:
