What we do

Our core programmes only fund:

• Work carried out by charities that are registered with:
  • the Charity Commission for England & Wales
  • the Office of the Scottish Charity Register, or
  • the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland
• Work that takes place in the UK

Across all our  programmes we aim to prioritise charities that:

• Operate in some of the most disadvantaged parts of the UK
• Try to engage the most marginalised and vulnerable in their work
• Can clearly demonstrate the needs they are addressing
• Know what they are aiming to achieve and plan to monitor and evaluate outcomes
• Are well placed and qualified to deliver the work
• Can show a proven track record as well as solid ambitions
• Have the potential to change the way issues are tackled more widely
• Take an effective approach to using volunteers and mentors (where appropriate)
• Are seeking to make their income streams more sustainable
• Have strong and quality leadership
• Manage their finances prudently

Please note that our core funding programmes are unable to consider:

• Applications received by post or email, i.e. not via our online funding request form
• Organisations that are not UK registered charities
• Activities taking place outside England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland
• Individual applicants or proposals that will benefit only one person
• Requests from charities that have applied to us in the last 12 months
• Work that has already taken place
• Work targeted towards people who are primarily disadvantaged due to the following:
  • physical health issues, disabilities or sensory impairments
  • learning disabilities or special educational needs
• Statutory bodies or work that is primarily the responsibility of statutory authorities (e.g. residential, respite and day care and housing)
• Activities of local organisations which are part of a wider network doing similar work (e.g. uniformed youth groups, YMCA, MIND, Mencap, Home-start, RDA, Relate, Citizens Advice Bureau, Age UK etc)
• Scholarships or bursaries

The Trust’s discretionary fund is not subject to all of these funding exclusions.

Types of funding

Grants from our core programmes will aim to meet the needs identified in your application. We fund individual projects that are aligned with our funding priorities, though we also recognise that charities are often best placed to allocate resources within their organisations. We therefore award many grants on an unrestricted basis and are willing to support core costs, capital expenditure and salaries.

There is no maximum or minimum grant size and, although we base our grants on the amount requested and the size of organisation, we may award more or less than you applied for.

We appreciate that charities welcome security of funding, so, where a longer-term commitment can be clearly justified, we will consider multi-year grants of up to three years.

Our small team processes a large number of requests and grants each year. With such limited resources, we are unable to consider more complex funding arrangements, like loans, or offer other types of support such as advice, feedback or networking opportunities.

Standard conditions of funding

We aim to provide funding with as few strings attached as possible, but our grants usually come with a set of simple conditions. Any additional requirements will be detailed in your grant email. We generally make our payments by bank transfer soon after a grant is awarded, and we ask grantees to provide proof of account.

For grants of £25,000 or more and for multi-year grants, we now ask grantees to complete our simple online monitoring report at the end of the grant period and, for multi-year grants, one month before the next payment tranche is due.

If we are funding a specific project that is subsequently found to be non-viable, grantees will need to seek our approval before reallocating our grant to another purpose.

We are happy to be named in charity donor lists, such as in annual reviews, but we ask you to get in touch if you wish to highlight the Trust in any other way.