Aims/priorities: This funding opportunity is for organisations that want to become Intermediary Partners for the Enterprise Gateway Fund, which is a £6 million, three-year fund designed to help small voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations and social entrepreneurs develop new sources of earned income and strengthen long‑term financial resilience.
The key aims of the Fund are to:
- Give VCSEs and social entrepreneurs across the UK the support they need to bring their enterprise ideas to life, diversify their income and become more financially resilient.
- Reach organisations, communities and regions underserved by enterprise grant funding and infrastructure.
- Contribute to an enterprise development ecosystem that lasts beyond the end of the funded programme.
The Intermediary Partners will recruit and support a cohort of eligible organisations and social entrepreneurs and with the funding be able to offer a package of support that combines:
- Grant funding.
- Practical enterprise development support.
- Opportunities for peer learning and mutual support.
- Connections, networks and other support that can help participants develop their enterprise ideas.
Who can apply? Eligible applicants will:
- Have an established track record of supporting organisations or social entrepreneurs to develop enterprise or trading activity.
- Have experience of managing onward grants, including appropriate grant making processes, financial controls and data management.
- Be able to design and deliver practical enterprise development support alongside grants.
- Be able to facilitate opportunities for participants to learn from and support one another.
- Have established networks that enable you to reach organisations or social entrepreneurs that have traditionally had limited access to enterprise support.
- Be able to contribute to learning about how enterprise support for smaller organisations can be strengthened.
- Have an annual income of at least £500,000 per year.
They do not need to operate across the whole of the UK. Applications are welcome from organisations with strong reach into specific communities or geographic areas where enterprise support is limited.
Eligible beneficiary organisations/individuals:
- Constituted VCSEs in England with an annual turnover of under £500,000.
- Organisations with a social purpose embedded in their legal structure.
- Charities, CICs with an asset lock, community benefit societies.
- Companies Limited by Guarantee (CLGs) with charitable aims and robust asset locks.
- Co-operatives where they can reasonably be regarded as asset-locked organisations.
- Non constituted organisations and individual social entrepreneurs working across the UK.
- Organisations working in high deprivation areas (IMD 1-3 areas) and underserved enterprise areas.
- Organisations working in one or more of Henry Smith Foundation's priority areas.
Grant amount: Intermediary organisations can apply for between £500,000 and £1.5 million to administer onward grants and deliver capacity building activities with:
- £4 million ring fenced for asset-locked organisations in England
- £2 million for UK wide non-constituted organisations and individuals.
Application process: There is a two-stage application process:
- Expression of Interests open 28 October 2026 (9am).
- Shortlisted applicants will be invited to submit a full application by the deadline of 22 January 2027.
Decisions are expected the first week of April 2027.
Full details are available on the Henry Smith Foundation website.
Deadline: Wednesday 25 November 2026 (17:00)
Contact information: Contact - Henry Smith
Website: Enterprise Gateway - Henry Smith