A wave of new funding from The Duncan & Toplis Foundation in Q2 and Q3 of 2025 is giving a boost to vital organisations across the region, helping them strengthen community ties, expand vital support services, and create welcoming spaces for local residents.
One of the beneficiaries is the Bingham Repair Café, a Nottinghamshire volunteer-led group that gives broken belongings a second life. From electricals and clothing to jewellery, ceramics, and bikes, volunteers offer free monthly repair sessions that cut down on landfill and encourage shared learning. The donation will cover essential running costs, including venue hire, consumables, tools, refreshments, and insurance, ensuring the café continues its hands-on, community-building mission throughout the year.
Home-Start Newark, which has supported families with young children for more than four decades, has also secured funding to replace outdated laptops and mobile phones. With a small but dedicated team delivering home-visiting support, developmental play sessions, and school-readiness programmes, the upgraded technology will streamline case management, improve communication, and enhance access to support the families they help.
Additional support is also heading to the Children’s Bereavement Centre in Newark, enabling the delivery of free one-to-one bereavement counselling by qualified specialists. The charity offers face-to-face and group support for children and young people aged 3-18, along with their parents and carers, following the death or terminal illness diagnosis of someone close to them. The funding ensures this essential emotional support remains free and accessible during a very challenging time in a child’s life.
At Dove Cottage Day Hospice in Leicestershire, the new grant will help replenish and expand the hospice’s diversional activities - resources that give guests a chance to relax, create, and reconnect. From Lego, crafts, and painting equipment to board games, colouring books, jewellery making, and more, these activities offer moments of joy and distraction beyond a medical diagnosis.
Meanwhile, Esther Esteem CIC in Boston, Lincolnshire, will use its donation to continue offering free life-coaching workshops to children who may otherwise miss out. The funding will also support the upkeep of the organisation’s free-to-use family caravan in Skegness, which can provide struggling families a much-needed chance to rest and reset.
Finally, Eaton Village Hall in Leicestershire will receive funding to transform the outdoor area beside the hall into a safe, welcoming, and flexible communal space. New seating and improvements will allow residents of all ages - including young people and more vulnerable community members - to gather, socialise, share skills, and enjoy events in the open air. The project forms part of the ongoing effort to preserve the village’s last remaining community building and reduce loneliness and isolation through meaningful connection.
If you would like to support the continued work of The Duncan & Toplis Foundation, you can donate here. Alternatively, if you’re looking for funding for a local community initiative, find out more about our grant criteria and how to apply here.
