Kingston Voluntary Action

Kingston Voluntary Action (KVA), established in 1968, is an independent infrastructure support organisation dedicated to strengthening the voluntary and community sector (VCS) in Kingston upon Thames. Its core mission is to champion, represent, and empower local voluntary organisations, community groups, and social enterprises through tailored information, advice, training, funding guidance, volunteer development, ICT support, and partnership brokerage. Guided by values of inclusiveness, local empowerment, resilience, and innovation, KVA fosters collaboration, addresses unmet needs, and builds organisational capacity to enhance community impact across diverse themes like poverty alleviation, health and wellbeing, mental health, children and young people, older people, environment, disability, multicultural inclusion, community safety, and skills development.

KVA does not award direct grants to projects or end-user services but invests in organisational development, robust governance, sustainability, and collaborative initiatives. It supports a broad spectrum of Kingston-based entities—from small grassroots charities and volunteer-led groups to established bodies—helping them secure external funding for core costs, projects, capital improvements, and resilience-building. Beneficiaries must be UK-registered charities, community groups, or social enterprises operating strictly in Kingston upon Thames and its neighbourhoods, with no income thresholds or religious restrictions.

Organisations register online and submit a funding support request form to access personalised guidance, grant searches, application reviews, and connections to external funders like National Lottery Community Fund or City Bridge Trust; there are no fixed deadlines, typical grant amounts (external grants range indicatively £500–£3,000+), or meeting frequencies, as KVA brokers rather than funds directly. Distinctively, KVA stands out as a generalist local hub for sector-wide capacity building, equitable support, and intelligence-sharing, excluding non-local groups and direct project funding to prioritise long-term VCS resilience.