Welcome to the KDP Bulletin.
This week our ‘Spotlight On’ features The Bellman. A great resource for Stonehaven and the surrounding area to keep up with local news and developments.
If your group would like to be featured in the next Bulletin get in touch soon.
As always, you’ll find lots of funding opportunities, training courses, events and guides. We hope there is something for everyone.
The Bellman SCIO is an volunteer-run website covering Stonehaven news, with a focus on the activities of Aberdeenshire Council and our community council – public interest journalism.
Jane Cruickshank developed the site to fill the gap left by the loss of reporting staff at the Mearns Leader. Jane was senior reporter with the Leader some 20 years ago so has a good understanding of the requirements of local news coverage.
The first article in The Bellman was published in December 2018 when our local stainless steel sculptor erected his latest work. Then, happy the site was up and working properly, our reporting coverage started in earnest in January 2019.
To make the project sustainable, we look for as much contributed content as possible. So we rely on local clubs, groups, societies – and KDP newsletter readers – getting behind The Bellman by sending us any news and information they would like to reach as wide an audience as possible.
Social media clearly has a huge role to play in communication today so The Bellman links all its content on both its own Facebook page and to Stonehaven Chat.
With the Facebook influence, our readership varies with the level of interest generated by each individual story. But our website statistics also tell us a good third of our readership comes to the site directly from a browser – so we also reach locals who perhaps prefer not to engage with social media.
And our ‘circulation’ just keeps on growing. This June, we achieved our current record of 129,701 page reads in a month. And in August we received over 20,000 unique site visitors, our highest monthly figure yet. Please don’t let your group miss out on this local coverage.
The first thinking behind The Bellman was to make the site almost open source by giving reliable local groups access to publish their own stories. If you would be interested in this just get in touch. Otherwise, to reach our audience please email news@thebellman.co.uk we would be delighted to post your content.
Along with our readership, the editorial team behind The Bellman is growing – assuring the future of reliable local news in Stonehaven. Joyce Esson takes an interest in the Kincardine and Mearns Area Committee and the Stonehaven and District Community Council. Meanwhile Andy McArdle gives his perspective on various aspects of our community from the Stoney Express to the delivery of our health care.
And we are always grateful to all those other volunteers who take the time to pen a report to share with our readers. For that is what we are all about – helping connect our community by ‘sharing Stonehaven’s news’. If you have not done so before, please visit our website.
The Bellman is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) Number SC050368
Children in Need – Project Costs support the aims and delivery of a specific piece of work. This work will usually be time-limited, and based on a defined set of activities.
Through this programme, Children in Need will fund organisations:
- Working with children and young people aged 18 years and under
- Working in the heart of their communities, particularly in times of crisis
- Putting children and young people at the centre of everything they do, from design to delivery
- Addressing challenges faced by children and young people, building their skills and resilience
- Empowering children and young people, and extending their choices in life
- Keen to keep learning about and developing their work with children and young people
- Committed to making a difference in children and young people’s lives
The Project Costs stream has no application deadline – you can apply at any time.
Find out more by visiting the BBC Children in Need website.
Join the Poverty Alliance for the Taking Action on Rural Poverty (TARP) National Conference annual online event on Tuesday 2nd December, 10 – 12.30pm.
This year they will be looking ahead to the 2026 Scottish elections and asking – how can we renew and strengthen efforts to tackle rural and island poverty in Scotland in the next parliament?
You will hear perspectives from Scotland, Wales, Ireland and reflections from this year’s European Rural Parliament – held in Aberdeenshire. You’ll have the opportunity to meet people from across rural and island Scotland who share your mission to end poverty and take the opportunity to collaboratively shape key messages for Scotland’s political parties as they develop their 2026 manifestos.
Reserve your place here.
The Aberdeenshire Community Resilience Fund is for community or resilience groups seeking funding to support community resilience.
Funding can be used for anything that supports individual or community resilience in an emergency. They welcome innovative and novel approaches to improving resilience.
This might be for new groups that might need equipment or resources to start up their resilience activities; or existing groups with ongoing costs or needing to replace out of date equipment for example: Generator costs, First Aid kits, Training, Work to enable power resilience, Torches, batteries, blankets, etc.
The grants issues will be up to £2,000 per group, special cases may be made for large scale projects that cover, for example, the whole of Aberdeenshire.
Apply at any time, funds are allocated on a first come first served basis.
Visit the Aberdeenshire Community Resilience Strategy where the application and guidance documents can be found.
Many third sector organisations provide support or run services that prevent things happening. However, prevention is hard to evaluate. Evaluation Support Scotland are often asked questions such as:
- How do we measure something that hasn’t happened?
- What does a positive approach to prevention look like in practice?
- How do we evaluate long term when funding is short term?
This guide shares learning from their work about how to evaluate prevention. They suggest approaches you can take and share examples from the third sector.
Find the guide here.
Grants are available for UK registered charities seeking to enhance and improve people’s lives through advancing the arts, health and medical welfare, and the environment. The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust typically awards grants of between £500 and £6,000 for projects and core costs, with a preference for small-scale, locally based initiatives.
Community services could include promoting access to the arts, conservation activities, music and art therapy to improve mental health and wellbeing, and providing breaks for carers.
There are three grant-making meetings held annually. Projects should have a start date of at least three months after the meeting date. The next deadline for applications is 11.59 pm on 21 January 2026.
More here.
Good Governance is key to having an effective board and making sure your organisation is achieving its aim and ambitions.
SCVO’s free, online Good Governance Checkup helps you assess where you’re doing well, and gives you a bespoke action plan for areas where you need to improve.
It takes about 30 minutes to complete, and should be filled out by trustees/committee members. You can save your progress as you go and SCVO will email you a link so you can return anytime. Once it’s completed you’ll receive your score and a bespoke action plan.
Get started here.
The W.G. Edwards Charitable Foundation is an independent grant-making charity which assists with the provision of care for the over-65s. This could be assistance towards a capital project such as refurbishment, furniture or equipment; or towards an innovative project such as fitness classes, lunch clubs, gardening projects, etc.
The Foundation only supports items or projects where at least 90% of the beneficiaries are over the age of 65.
If you wish to apply, you must email your application between December 8–12, 2025. Find out more here.
SCDC, on behalf of Scottish Government, are running a series of facilitated sessions where people will have a chance to reflect on what trust means to them, how that relates to positive and negative experiences with government – as well as what needs to happen to build trust in this engagement process.
The responses from these sessions will directly inform Scottish Government actions through the Open Government Action Plan 2026 to 2030. The Action Plan is a way for civil society and government to work together on agreed priorities, and builds on the work of previous action plans.
Groups can also undertake self-facilitated discussions, supported by a facilitation guide, and equalities and lived experience organisations can apply for a £250 stipend to support discussions with their members (limited places).
Full information can be found here.
Aviva has partnered with Crowdfunder to support small charities and community groups with innovative ideas that benefit their communities and are looking to raise up to £50,000.
The Aviva Community Fund will match each donation given, up to the value of £250, to support projects that enhance community resilience, with a focus on two main areas: Climate Action and Financial Wellbeing. Activities could include providing cost-of-living support, community energy schemes, or financial education workshops.
Once applications have been submitted, applicants will create a fundraising page on Crowdfunder, which Aviva employees and the public can donate to.
The closing date for applications is 15 December 2025.
Learn more on their website.
Earlier this year, OSCR began collecting charity trustee information through OSCR Online. Providing this information is a legal requirement for all charities. From early 2026, the first and last names of charity trustees who do not have an exemption will be published on the Scottish Charity Register (all other information will be confidential).
More here.
The Lintel Trust, Scotland’s Housing Charity, is offering small grants of £500 or £1,000 for initiatives that support people in social housing, with a focus on projects that reduce social isolation, promote digital participation, enable older people to live independently, support individuals with disabilities, and assist those transitioning from homelessness to stable housing.
Eligible organisations must have a direct connection to housing associations, housing cooperatives, or local authority social housing providers.
The next application deadline is 4 February 2026. Interested organisations should visit the Lintel Trust website for more information and application guidelines.
Keen to encourage new people to join your creative group? Struggling to keep newcomers when they arrive?
This free toolkit from Creative Lives talks you through:
- Ways to attract and encourage new people to join your creative group
- How to ensure potential new members have a positive experience when contacting you
- Looking after a newcomer when they first visit your group
- How to retain members once they join you
- Things to think about to keep your members engaged and involved
And more . . .
Listed and unlisted Christian places of worship requiring major or urgent structural repairs can apply for grants of up to £50,000. The funding, made available through the National Churches Trust’s Large Grants Programme, will cover up to 50% of larger, more complex projects costing over £80,000.
Funding is also available for projects costing more than £30,000 that improve facilities such as kitchens and accessible toilets, etc, to enable increased community use.
Priority will be given to architecturally and historically significant buildings.
There is a two-stage application process, and the deadline for stage one applications is midnight on 3 March 2026. Applicants will be informed of the stage 2 deadline if they are successful at stage 1.
Find out more here.
The Just Transition Participatory Budgeting Fund public vote is now LIVE!
Your votes decide which eco-friendly projects receive funding in your local area, and there a number of groups in K&M that are looking for support.
By taking part, you’re not just supporting local initiatives – you’re helping shape a greener, more sustainable future for our region.
Your voice matters and every vote counts.
Submit your vote before 17:00 on Monday 8 December. Be sure to vote for 5 groups or your vote will not count.
A new £1.5 million fund has been launched by the Scottish Government to improve access, inclusion, and equality for disabled people. The Improving Access Fund offers grants of up to £80,000 for disabled-people-led organisations and community groups to deliver projects that strengthen financial security, encourage participation, and improve mental health.
Jointly designed with Disabled People’s Organisations, the fund forms part of the Scottish Government’s Disability Equality Plan. Unincorporated organisations can apply for up to £5,000.
The fund is administered by Inspiring Scotland, which will accept applications until 12pm on 19 January 2026.
November 26, 2025 / KDP Bulletins