The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 plus 5 letter word COMMUNITY CHEST
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
C
O
M
M
U
N
I
T
Y
C
H
E
S
T
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "local funding" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case local funding = community chest.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.