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Cairngorms Trust

CAIRNGORMS TRUST

GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

The Cairngorms Trust

Fund­ing for Com­munit­ies in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park since 2016

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

We are a registered Char­it­able Incor­por­ated Organisation

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

  • Grant-giv­ing and fun­drais­ing for Com­munity Led Pro­jects through­out the Cairngorms
  • Work­ing in part­ner­ship with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

PART OF THE Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Our mis­sion: to encour­age sus­tain­able and com­munity-led devel­op­ment through­out the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Our vis­ion: to be recog­nised as a val­ued organ­isa­tion advoc­at­ing rur­al devel­op­ment and sup­port­ing loc­al pri­or­it­ies and solutions

Our Val­ues: we aim to be Respons­ive to com­munity needs Know­ledge­able about our com­munit­ies and in provid­ing sup­port Ambi­tious for the Cairngorms Trust and for our com­munit­ies Innov­at­ive in shap­ing our future

How do we work?

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

  • We have a board of trust­ees; 10 volun­teers from across the Park with a huge range of exper­i­ence in com­munity devel­op­ment, and a deep and wide know­ledge of the places and people that make up the Cairngorms.
  • We put out calls for applic­a­tions to the funds we man­age, and our trust­ees make the decisions about who gets what.
  • We also call on the expert­ise of the team work­ing to sup­port the Trust, and those on the wider CNPA staff with their spe­cial­ist know­ledge in the areas we fund, like the envir­on­ment, green trans­port, access­ib­il­ity and so on.
  • The Trust has one dir­ect employ­ee, the Trust Manager.

What funds are available?

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

  • The Com­munity Led Vis­ion Fund is a ded­ic­ated fund­ing ini­ti­at­ive estab­lished by the Cairngorms Trust to sup­port and empower loc­al com­munit­ies with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park
  • Fund­ing comes dir­ect from the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment to sup­port rur­al com­munity development
  • The Nation­al Park is the ​“account­able body” and holds and dis­trib­utes the funds, accord­ing to the Trust’s decisions
  • In 4 annu­al fund­ing rounds between 2022 and 2025, £1,328,986 has been dis­trib­uted via this fund, sup­port­ing 87 projects.
  • Expres­sions of Interest are invited now for the next fund­ing round.

Oth­er funding:

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

  • In addi­tion to this, The Cairngorms Trust has dis­trib­uted a total of over £900,000 to more than 220 com­munity pro­jects across the region since 2016
  • Fund­ing streams include
    • In Com­munity Devel­op­ment: The Green Recov­ery Fund and Parks for All
    • In Nature: The Resi­li­ence Fund and Net­works for Nature
    • Fund­ing for Youth Pro­jects via the Youth Loc­al Action Group
    • Fund­ing for Paths Pro­jects
    • And most recently for Com­munit­ies & Cul­tur­al Heritage

What kinds of pro­jects do we fund?

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

  • Loc­al and com­munity-led
  • Recog­nised as a pri­or­ity by the com­munity (often as reflec­ted in Com­munity Action plans and in the wider Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan)
  • About liv­ing and work­ing in the Cairngorms, which might include:
    • Green travel and accessibility
    • Encour­aging tourism
    • Com­munity spaces
    • Pro­tect­ing the environment
    • Pro­mot­ing cul­tur­al heritage
  • Provid­ing oppor­tun­it­ies or address­ing chal­lenges

What makes a suc­cess­ful application?

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

When mak­ing decisions about which applic­a­tions to sup­port, Trust­ees ask the fol­low­ing questions:

  • Is it a good match to the fund­ing scheme applied to?
  • Does it align with Com­munity Action Plans or Park Part­ner­ship Plan?
  • Does it have clear out­puts and out­comes?
  • Does it have an achiev­able timeline?
  • Does it look well man­aged?
  • Is the budget clear and real­ist­ic?
  • What are the risks and have they been addressed?

What else?

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

Oth­er import­ant ele­ments the Trust­ees con­sider are:

  • Com­munity sup­port and buy-in: evid­ence that the pro­ject is really rel­ev­ant. This could be reflec­ted in volun­teer time, in-kind sup­port, part­ner­ship work­ing, dona­tions and so on
  • Impact across the Nation­al Park – it is import­ant to try to sup­port pro­jects from com­munit­ies from all corners of the park. So, a good geo­graph­ic spread
  • Impact across all demo­graph­ics – the Trust strives to main­tain a focus on equal­ity, diversity and inclu­sion in the deliv­ery of its activ­ity. So, we aim to see all demo­graph­ic groups rep­res­en­ted across the pro­jects we fund.

Examples of fun­ded projects:

Parks for All

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

In 2024 The Cairngorms Trust worked with a lived exper­i­ence pan­el to co-devel­op a fund to encour­age mem­bers of the Black and Minor­ity Eth­nic com­munity to:

  • access the out­doors in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park
  • pro­mote con­nec­tion to nature and com­munity and
  • inspire envir­on­ment­al aware­ness cre­at­ing pos­it­ive change with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

Pro­jects sup­por­ted include

  • New Young Scots field trip (for a group of primar­ily Afghan young people)
  • Fam­ily days and Hill-walk­ing days in the Cairngorms organ­ised by the Scot­tish High­lands and Islands and Moray Chinese Association

Net­works for Nature

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

The Net­works for Nature Fund was estab­lished by the Cairngorms Trust to help devel­op nature pro­jects spe­cific­ally related to cli­mate change and to tackle biod­iversity decline with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

Examples include:

  • Hab­it­at improve­ment for wild­life at Glenbeg
  • Exten­sion of wild­flower hab­it­at at Del­lie­fure Nat­ur­al Buri­al Ground
  • Estab­lish­ing land­scape scale ripari­an wood­land in the upper Shee
  • A hedge­hog high­way in Ballater

Com­munit­ies & Cul­tur­al Heritage

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

This new fund was set up with two main aims. To promote:

  • A cul­tur­ally vibrant com­munity – through pro­jects that sup­port and cel­eb­rate the unique iden­tity and her­it­age of communities
  • A socially con­nec­ted com­munity – through pro­jects that sup­port com­munit­ies to be happy, healthy, access­ible and inclusive

A total of 11 pro­jects were sup­por­ted with funds just over £65,000 including:

  • Grant­own Museum: Stor­ies of Strath­spey Textiles
  • Grant­own Open Stu­di­os show­cas­ing artists and craftspeople in the Park
  • A tra­di­tion­al boat-build­ing pro­ject at Kin­gussie High School
  • Agri-con­nec­tions: a well-being and her­it­age pro­ject with crofters and farm­ers across the Park

The ACE Project

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

The Act­ive Cairngorms e‑Bike pro­ject (ACE) was set up by the Cairngorms Trust in 2019 and now has its day-to-day oper­a­tions at Aviemore Bikes.

The pro­ject cov­ers the Badenoch and Strath­spey area and offers res­id­ents free long-term e‑Bike loans.

It helps pro­mote sus­tain­able trans­port options in the area

  • redu­cing car­bon emissions
  • encour­aging act­ive life­styles and explor­a­tion of the nation­al park
  • provid­ing a cost-effect­ive altern­at­ive for commuters

What about young people?

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

  • The CNPA runs the Cairngorms Youth Action Team – a group of young people aged 16 – 30 who are pas­sion­ate about the envir­on­ment and their loc­al com­munit­ies, and who come togeth­er to inspire and empower oth­er young people across the Park.
  • The Cairngorms Youth Loc­al Action Group (the YLAG) is formed of mem­bers of the youth action team, and is a sub-com­mit­tee of The Cairngorms Trust board.
  • With funds del­eg­ated to them by The Cairngorms Trust, the YLAG invites applic­a­tions and makes fund­ing decisions on pro­jects for young people or by young people (or both!).
  • The YLAG have just cel­eb­rated £100,000 fund­ing for 100 Pro­jects

Examples of YLAG projects

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

100 pro­jects cov­er­ing all kinds of activ­ity have been sup­por­ted through YLAG fund­ing in 7 fund­ing rounds since 2021. Here are some of them:

  • Nature and Forest therapy
  • Winter Moun­tain lead­er skills
  • Sum­mer Moun­tain lead­er skills
  • Shinty Equip­ment
  • Green Gym Youth Orchard
  • Cairngorm Pride Paddlers
  • Music and Gael­ic in the Park
  • Rewild­ing RSPB forest in Abernethy
  • Young Carers res­pite breaks
  • Leather­work Course
  • Yoga Teach­er training

And loads of moun­tain bike projects!

What else do we do?

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

Fun­drais­ing is anoth­er key part of the Trust’s activ­ity and an area we are devel­op­ing in order to be able to sup­port more activity.

We cur­rently receive regular

  • Dona­tions from the public
  • Spon­sor­ship from loc­al businesses

Over the com­ing months we will be devel­op­ing a new fun­drais­ing strategy which include

  • Applic­a­tions to trusts and found­a­tions to sup­port our core work
  • Look­ing into a more com­pre­hens­ive indi­vidu­al giv­ing scheme
  • Devel­op­ing deep­er rela­tion­ships with busi­nesses

CAIRNGORMS TRUST GIVE • PRO­TECT • GROW

For more inform­a­tion visit:

Cairngorms Trust | Give — Pro­tect – Grow

The Cairngorms Trust is the oper­at­ing name of the Cairngorms Loc­al Action Group Trust and is a registered Scot­tish Char­ity num­ber SC046495

14 The Square, Grant­own-on-Spey, PH26 3HG