Together for Service Families Place-Based Grants 2026: Portfolio Awards of Up to £350,000 Over 3.5 Years, With Expressions of Interest Closing 12 Noon on 19 August 2026

Together for Service Families Place-Based Grants 2026: Portfolio Awards of Up to £350,000 Over 3.5 Years, With Expressions of Interest Closing 12 Noon on 19 August 2026

Military family life is organised around absence. A parent deploys. A unit goes on exercise for six weeks. A serving partner takes an unaccompanied posting and comes home at weekends, or commutes hundreds of miles, or gets pulled away at short notice for the third time in a term. Then the family moves house, and the whole local support network — the GP, the school, the childminder, the friend two doors down who understood — has to be rebuilt from scratch somewhere else.

The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust’s Together for Service Families: place-based grants programme is aimed squarely at that pattern. It offers portfolio grants of up to £350,000 for projects delivered in one specific UK location over a period of up to 3.5 years, with the goal of mitigating the impact of separation and relocation on families of serving personnel and reservists.

What makes this programme unusual is its shape. This is not a grant to run one service. It is a grant to a single lead organisation that then coordinates a set of funded and unfunded partners across a defined place, so that the support around serving families in that location actually works as a system rather than as a scatter of well-meaning but disconnected offers. The Trust describes it as one of two complementary 26/27 programmes aimed at improving quality of life for those affected by separation, mobility and isolation during service life.

The first deadline is close. Stage One expressions of interest are due at 12 noon on 19 August 2026.

Key Details

What a Portfolio Grant Actually Is

This is the concept most likely to trip up applicants, so it is worth being precise about it.

A portfolio grant is awarded to a single lead organisation — the Trust calls this the Portfolio Lead. That organisation holds the funding and coordinates a number of funded and unfunded delivery partners in a defined place, all working together toward the programme’s outcomes.

Two clarifications from the Trust’s own FAQ matter here:

• The Portfolio Lead may deliver services directly, as well as coordinating the portfolio. You are not barred from doing the work yourself.
• However, the Trust would not expect all delivery or all grant funding to sit within one organisation. If your expression of interest describes a £350,000 project that your charity delivers alone, you have misread the programme.

The Trust anchors its definition of “place-based” in work by the Institute for Voluntary Action Research: targeted investment in defined geographic areas, comprising some mix of multiple grants, particularly large investments, and grants plus additional activity such as capacity building, networking and influencing work — all within a defined place.

Read that list again, because it tells you what a strong portfolio contains. Not just service delivery. Capacity building. Networking. Influencing. The money is meant to change how a local system behaves, not simply to buy 3.5 years of activity that stops when the grant does.

Who This Fits — and Who It Does Not

Applications are invited from:

• A registered charity, registered in the UK for at least three years at the time of application, with substantial recent experience of supporting armed forces communities.
• A local authority.

The three-year registration requirement and the “substantial recent experience” test together rule out newly formed organisations and organisations that have never worked with the serving community. This is not a programme for a first venture into armed forces support. The Trust is looking for a lead body that already has credibility, relationships and a track record in this space, because the Portfolio Lead role requires convening other people — and you cannot convene a local system you are not already part of.

This programme fits you well if:

• You are already trusted by serving families in a specific place, and you can see clearly which parts of the local support offer are missing or badly joined up.
• You have working relationships with statutory partners, other charities, and — where relevant — local base representatives, and those partners would credibly agree to be part of a portfolio.
• You are comfortable holding and administering a substantial multi-year grant while distributing some of it to partners.

It fits you poorly if:

• Your interest is national rather than local. The programme funds defined places, not UK-wide services.
• You want funding for a single discrete service with no partnership dimension.
• Your “place” is a whole region defined mainly because that is where your organisation happens to operate.

On that last point the Trust is blunt: your place must be clearly defined and justified, and should represent a coherent serving community with clearly identified needs. Large or loosely defined areas without a strong rationale are unlikely to be competitive.

The Five Outcomes Your Portfolio Must Deliver

Projects will be expected to meet all of the following:

1. Families feel better equipped to manage and reduce the impact of loneliness or isolation during periods of separation or relocation.
2. Improved mental health and wellbeing for serving families through preventative, early help or targeted support.
3. Organisations in the local community have a stronger, shared understanding of what types of support work well for serving families, including both preventative and responsive models.
4. Families are better able to navigate separation, reintegration and relocation, experiencing fewer challenges as a result of strengthened relationships.
5. Enhanced collaboration and streamlined support pathways for the serving community through stronger partnerships and improved service integration.

Note that outcomes 3 and 5 are about the local system, not about individual families. A portfolio that only helps families directly — however well — leaves two of five outcomes unaddressed. Your expression of interest should show how the portfolio changes what local organisations know and how they work together, not just how many families it reaches.

Note also the word “preventative”, which appears twice. The Trust is signalling interest in support that reaches families before a crisis, not only in response to one.

The kinds of separation and relocation in scope include deployment, exercises and training, unaccompanied postings, weekending and long-distance commuting, repeated short-notice time away, and moving home.

How the Two-Stage Process Works

Stage One — Expression of Interest. You are bidding to act as the lead organisation for a portfolio grant in your chosen place. The deadline is 12 noon on 19 August 2026. Expressions of interest are assessed and reviewed by the Trust’s Trustees, and you will receive a decision by the end of November 2026.

Stage Two — Full application. Successful bidders are invited to submit a full application detailing the project work the portfolio will achieve. This is due at 12 noon on 20 January 2027, with decisions by the end of March 2027.

Two warnings the Trust states explicitly, both worth taking seriously:

• Submitting an expression of interest is not a guarantee of an invitation to Stage Two. EOIs are assessed competitively, and only those that best meet the programme aims, outcomes and criteria progress.
• Being invited to submit a full application is not a guarantee of funding. Stage Two is also competitive, and Trustees may not be able to fund all applications that fully meet the programme aims.

Applications can only be made through the Trust’s online application portal.

The Discovery Phase — a Genuine Advantage

Successful applicants are expected to undertake a discovery or development phase at the start of the project, lasting up to six months. This phase is for deepening engagement with serving families and local stakeholders, confirming needs, formalising partnerships and refining delivery plans before full delivery begins.

This is more generous than it may first appear, and it should change how you write your bid.

Because a discovery phase is built in, you are not required to arrive with every delivery detail nailed down. The Trust confirms that if learning during discovery changes your delivery plans, that is acceptable — provided changes remain aligned with the programme aims, outcomes, target beneficiaries and place, and are clearly informed by the evidence you gathered.

So the honest position at expression-of-interest stage is: here is the place, here is the evidence of need, here are the partners, here is our reading of what is missing, and here is what we will test and confirm in discovery. That is a stronger and more credible bid than a fully specified 3.5-year delivery plan invented in three weeks. Do not fake certainty you do not have.

What you cannot be vague about is the place, the evidence, the partnership, and your organisation’s capability to lead.

What to Prepare Before 19 August

With the Stage One deadline close, work in this order:

Read the programme guidance first. The Trust publishes a Programme Guidance document, a set of application questions for reference, and the grant terms and conditions on the programme page. The Trust strongly recommends reviewing these before applying, and specifically encourages looking at the application questions before you begin the online form. The guidance contains more detailed eligibility information than the web page summary.

Define and justify your place. Write the geographic rationale down and pressure-test it. Why this boundary? What makes it a coherent serving community? What is the evidence of need specific to this location rather than to serving families in general?

Confirm your partners. Identify who is in the portfolio, both funded and unfunded. The Trust expects applicants to bring together statutory and non-statutory partners, and local base representatives where relevant. A named, engaged partner list is worth far more than a list of organisations you intend to contact.

Think about less visible families. The Trust states it is particularly interested in projects that reach families who may be less visible in local systems, including those living off-base. Projects can support families living both on or near base and off-base. If your portfolio has a credible route to off-base families, say so clearly — this is one of the few places the Trust names an explicit preference.

Budget for evaluation. Projects should include appropriate and proportionate costs for data collection, reporting and learning. These must be realistic and clearly reflected in your budget. Under-costing evaluation is a common and avoidable weakness.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Treating it as a service grant. The most likely failure mode is a good single-service proposal wearing portfolio language. If the partnership is decorative, assessors will see it.

A place chosen for convenience. A vague or oversized area with a thin rationale is explicitly flagged by the Trust as uncompetitive.

Ignoring the system-level outcomes. Two of the five outcomes concern shared local understanding and integrated support pathways. Address them directly rather than hoping they will be inferred.

Assuming you can add information later. To ensure fairness, the Trust cannot accept additional information after submission unless it specifically requests it. Your submitted document is your case. Proofread accordingly, and do not plan to send a follow-up annex.

Misusing AI. The Trust permits AI assistance in drafting, provided all information is accurate, evidence-based and written in your organisation’s own voice. AI must not be used to invent content, quotes or statistics. The guidance document has further advice, and applicants are reminded to remain mindful of data protection responsibilities and UK GDPR compliance. A bid full of generic AI phrasing and unattributable claims is a bid that reads as though nobody at your organisation actually knows the place.

Expecting a follow-on grant. Funding is awarded for the approved project and timeframe only. There is no guarantee of future or additional funding beyond the grant awarded. If your portfolio depends on continuation money, build sustainability into the design.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a local authority apply? Yes. Local authorities are eligible alongside qualifying registered charities.

Does our charity need three years of armed forces work specifically? The stated requirement is UK registration for at least three years at the time of application, plus substantial recent experience of supporting armed forces communities. Check the programme guidance for the detailed definition before assuming you qualify.

Can the lead organisation deliver services as well as coordinate? Yes — but the Trust would not expect all delivery or all grant funding to sit within one organisation.

How long is the money for? Up to 3.5 years, with up to the first six months as a discovery or development phase.

Will we get feedback if we are unsuccessful? All unsuccessful applicants at both expression-of-interest and full-application stage receive a copy of their assessment report. The Trust aims to provide feedback where possible, but notes this may be limited depending on application volumes.

What happens if we are successful at Stage Two? The Trust will email you with next steps for receiving your official offer letter, and will invite you to a virtual meeting to discuss next steps, provide further information and answer questions.

Have any awards been made yet? No. As of the current programme page, no awards have been made under this programme — this is a new call.

Official Links and Contact

• Programme page and application portal: Together for Service Families: place-based grants — includes the Programme Guidance document, the reference copy of the application questions, and the grant terms and conditions.
• Open programmes across the funder: covenantfund.org.uk/programmes — worth checking for the complementary 26/27 programme if a place-based portfolio lead role is not the right fit for your organisation.
• Funder: The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust Limited (company number 11185188), acting as trustee of the Armed Forces Covenant Fund (registered charity number 1177627), 3rd Floor, 3 Wellington Place, Leeds LS1 4AP. Chair: Hans Pung. Chief Executive: Anna Wright.

Is It Worth Bidding?

If you already lead armed forces family support in a defined UK location and you have partners who would credibly join a portfolio, yes — this is a large, long, flexible grant of a kind that rarely appears, and the built-in discovery phase removes much of the usual pressure to over-specify a plan you cannot yet evidence.

If you would be assembling the place, the evidence and the partnership from a standing start in the next two weeks, the honest answer is that Stage One is competitive and a rushed bid is unlikely to progress. In that case, the better move is to read the guidance now, build the local relationships deliberately, and watch the Trust’s open programmes page — the Covenant Fund runs recurring calls, and a genuine partnership takes longer to build than a deadline allows.

Either way, the guidance document is the authoritative source. This page summarises the published programme information; confirm every detail against the Trust’s own materials before you submit.