Are you eligible?
Categories eligible for grant
The Trust provides financial assistance to UK registered or exempt
charities whose activities fall within the following three categories:
- care of and services for blind people, and
the prevention and/or cure of blindness;
- long-term care of people with
learning disabilities
either: in a residential care or supported living environment in
a way that provides a family environment and wide choice of activities
and lifestyle; or: by providing long-term day/employment
activities;
- care of and services for people suffering from
cancer and their families.
Unrestricted grants
Charities which are eligible may apply for core funding/ongoing costs but must demonstrate a
clear need for unrestricted rather than project funding. This need might be
related to the pandemic because we understand that income streams will be
affected for some time and reserves will have been substantially depleted,
and/or to substantial rises in costs because of current economic conditions.
Grants under this programme are unlikely to exceed £10,000 so we will
prioritise smaller charities whose annual turnover is such that they are
most likely to benefit from an award.
Charities with healthy unrestricted funds are unlikely to be successful
under this programme.
Charities are unlikely to receive more than three successive grants under
this programme.
Project grants
We are prepared to support a wide variety of projects; examples of past
grants are included in What we need for each field.
Grants vary in amount, but generally fall within the range of £3,000 to
£30,000. The total amount awarded varies from year to year according to
available funds.
In the current financial climate, commitments to make future payments
are rarely given, with grants normally being
one-off annual grants. Charities which have received a grant are encouraged
to apply in the next and subsequent years, but should note that only rarely
will grants be given to the same charity for four successive years. This does not however mean that a
charity that has received three successive grants will not be eligible in future years,
just that we would not generally award a grant in year four.
Exceptional grants
The Trustees may occasionally consider larger exceptional grants, but
this is unusual and generally confined to charities that we know well and
have supported for some time. There is no separate application process for
this, and contenders will be identified from the normal grant round.
Applications unlikely to succeed
The Trustees do not support:
- Organisations that are not registered charities (or properly exempt)
- General appeals or letters/mail-shots requesting donations (you must
follow our guidelines)
- Individuals, or charities applying on their behalf
- Grant-making organisations seeking funding for the purpose of
awarding grants to others
- Applications for less than £3,000
- Charities with a turnover of less than £50,000
- Charities with liquid (free) reserves covering more than 18 months’
expenditure unless they can clearly demonstrate that they are in
financial need
- Charities that do not yet have a track record of service delivery
(or other convincing evidence of ability)
- Ongoing running (including salaries) and core costs, ongoing
projects or services (although they will support an extension to
existing provision if additional cost is incurred), unless the
application is made to our unrestricted grants programme
- Projects which benefit people outside the UK,
except in
the blind field
- Projects which are complete (i.e. retrospective funding)
- Academic research projects
- Campaigning or lobbying projects
- Work usually considered a statutory responsibility
- Items of equipment or buildings intended for use by the NHS.
What to do next
If you are satisfied that your charity and the work you are asking us to
support are eligible for a grant, see first ‘How to apply’
and then read What we need for
your field. You must
follow these guidelines and give us all the information we need, or your application
cannot be considered.
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