Democratic Engagement Fund: Prospectus
Information about grant funding for democratic engagement pilots and how eligible civil society organisations operating in England can apply.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
The Democratic Engagement Fund will provide grants to civil society organisations operating in England to deliver politically neutral, place-based activities that help people understand, engage with, and participate in democracy.
The Fund focuses on groups that are currently less democratically engaged and aims to generate evidence on what works to increase democratic participation, informing future policy and practice.
The Democratic Engagement Fund closed to applications on 31 August 2026 at 11:59pm. No further applications are being accepted.
MHCLG will now assess applications and expects to communicate outcomes in January 2027.
The Fund has attracted significant interest, receiving far more applications than the 80-100 projects it is expected to fund. Award decisions will be competitive, meaning we may need to consider the breadth of the projects we fund as well as the assessment score received. This will allow us to support the Fund’s objective of generating evidence on what works best to increase democratic participation. As set out in the Prospectus, while we will notify all applicants of their individual outcome, MHCLG is unable to provide feedback on those projects which will not be taken forward.
Updates to this page
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Updated with note on applications following end of application period.
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Updated prospectus by adding definitions of ethnic minorities and frequent movers, and a link to the cost form template.
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Updated information about the online application workshops and added British Sign Language version of the recording.
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First published.
Update history
2026-09-01 00:01
Updated with note on applications following end of application period.
2026-07-29 14:23
Updated prospectus by adding definitions of ethnic minorities and frequent movers, and a link to the cost form template.
2026-07-17 16:30
Updated information about the online application workshops and added British Sign Language version of the recording.
2026-06-08 09:00
First published.