Changes to the way small grants are issued to local organisations are set to be considered by Worcester City councillors.
The One Worcester Communities Grants scheme has a Small Grants allocation of £45,000, funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Councillors have already agreed to continue to supply £3,500 of this money each year as a grant to Worcester Arts Council, which distributes small amounts of it to support various arts activities in the city.
The remaining £41,500 is available to be shared between other organisations and the way it is distributed is about to change.
If councillors back the changes, organisations will be invited to bid for grant funding each autumn. Officers will assess each application against a scoring system and make recommendations for awards which will then go before councillors for approval.
Details of the timetable for the funding applications have yet to be finalised, but it is expected that organisations will be invited to make a bid for funding during a six-week window between September and November, with awards being approved in December.
To ensure that as many groups as possible can benefit from the fund, the total grant available for any one event is £2000, which must be match funded.
Councillors will be asked to back the proposed changes at a meeting of the Policy and Resources committee on 5 September.
Councillor Marjory Bisset, vice chair of Worcester City Council's Policy and Resources Committee said: "Unfortunately, the pot of cash available for these grants is smaller than it once was, so it is more important than ever that we offer all qualifying groups the same chance to be considered. This new process will be simple and fair and I very much hope it will be approved at committee stage."
