Inspire Fund

Inspire Fund — Future

Supports freelance creatives in Greater Manchester, United Kingdom with micro grants, broad eligibility, and project-based cultural funding.

The Inspire Fund is a £300,000 arts support program launched by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and administered by Salford CVS (Community and Voluntary Services). It was established to address the documented decline in support for freelance artists and independent creatives following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which many freelance performers, artists, and musicians left the arts sector. The fund provides individual project grants of £500 to £2,000 to freelancers and smaller organisations working across music, visual arts, photography, literature, heritage, and other creative disciplines anywhere in Greater Manchester.

Three application categories are in use: Creative Organisation, Independent Organisation, and Freelance. The fund is explicitly aimed at the smaller end of the creative sector — individual practitioners and micro-organisations — rather than established institutions. Eligible applicants include independent artists, musicians, performers, photographers, writers, and small creative arts organisations from across all ten Greater Manchester districts. The £300,000 total is the three-year program envelope, not a single-round allocation; each round distributes a portion of the overall pool. Round 1 closed at 12:00 PM on 1 March 2024, and Rounds 2 and 3 have also been completed, with funded organisations publicly listed for each round by Salford CVS.

The fund's future rounds are expected but had not been formally scheduled as of the most recent source dates. Salford CVS is the point of contact for applications and queries, not GMCA directly. Applicants in a future round should monitor Salford CVS communications for the announcement of opening dates and eligibility guidance. The three completed rounds funded practitioners across disciplines including music, visual art, theatre, cinema, ceramics, puppetry, and street performance throughout the Greater Manchester area.