Funding Friday
The Clothworkers’ Foundation
Our Open Grants Programme accepts applications from UK registered charities or not-for-profits and who meet our eligibility criteria, for funding towards capital projects.
Grants are awarded towards capital projects, which we define as:
- Buildings: purchase, construction, renovation or refurbishment
- Fittings, Fixtures, and Equipment: this includes but is not limited to office equipment/furniture, sports/gym equipment, digital/audio visual equipment, software and websites (more guidance on digital infrastructure can be found here), garden equipment, specialist therapeutic (excluding medical) equipment. It does not include equipment for one-off use, or which will be given to service users for personal use on a permanent basis
- Vehicles: This includes (but is not exclusive to) minibuses, cars, caravans, people carriers, 4×4 and boats. We are unlikely to fund the total cost of a new vehicle or award funding to an organisation that already owns a large number of vehicles. We do not provide grants towards vehicle leasing or award funding to organisations whose core activity is community transport.
We fund both large and small projects.
The size of grant awarded will depend on a number of factors including the size of your organisation and the cost and scale of your capital project.
You must be able to demonstrate that the work of your organisation fits within one or more of our programme areas, and that at least 50% of service users benefiting from the capital project are from one or more of those groups.
Learn more about applying for a grant here.
Bernard Sunley Foundation grants
The Foundation offers grants in the categories of Community, Education, Health or Social Welfare.
They offer three levels of grants. These are large grants of £20,000 and above; medium grants of up to £20,000 and small grants of £5,000 and under. Grants can be used for:
- Capital projects which include new buildings, extensions, refurbishments and recreational spaces
- New minibuses and other vehicles that provide a vital service to those most in need in their local community
- Churches and other places of worship with a strong, secular community focus
- Charities or CIOs (Charitable Incorporated Organisations) registered in England and Wales
- Certain organisations with exempt status such as specialist schools, scout and guide groups, housing associations, cooperatives, and community benefit societies
Applications are accepted all year round.
The Steel Charitable Trust
The Trust makes discretionary grants where they believe that their contribution will make a real difference.
Applications must be for charitable purposes that fall into one of the five core categories below:
- Arts and Heritage
- Education
- Environment
- Health
- Social or Economic Disadvantage
The minimum grant size is £10,000. Awards of more than £25,000 are rare.
Rolling grants programme (steelcharitabletrust.org.uk)
BBC Children in Need
Children in Need often have several funding programmes open at any one time. These include:
- Project Costs grants – support the aims and delivery of a specific piece of work. This work will usually be time-limited and based on a defined set of activities.
- Core Costs grants – can be spent on an organisation’s central running and operational costs.
Charities and not-for-profit organisations can apply for these grants for up to three years.
They aim to give quicker decisions for grants of £15,000 or less per year.
There is no application deadline.
Apply For A Grant – BBC Children in Need
Garfield Weston Foundation
The Foundation support a wide range of charities that make a positive difference, working in different sectors in the UK. These include welfare, youth, community, environment, education, health, arts, heritage and faith.
They fund small local organisations and large national institutions. Grants range from £1,000 to several million pounds, depending on each charity’s size and scope of work.
The grants can be for your organisation’s running costs, for a specific activity or for capital projects. The Foundation are flexible and fund what charities need the most.
Normally, capital grants are no more than 10% of a total project cost. However, for local community projects (e.g. village halls, community centres, places of worship, etc.), grants are unlikely to be over £30,000 regardless of the project size. If your organisation wants to apply for £100,000 or over, they expect your annual income or project to be over £1 million.
What we fund – Garfield Weston Foundation
Tesco Stronger Starts Fund
Tesco Stronger Starts is open to charities and community organisations to apply for a grant of up to £1,500. Every three months, three local good causes are selected to be in the blue token customer vote in Tesco stores throughout the UK.
Applications are open to all local good causes, but we are currently prioritising helping projects that support children’s food security and health and local store nominated good causes.
This is not an exhaustive list and other project ideas also welcomed.
Examples include:
- School Breakfast clubs
- Holiday clubs
- Play areas
- Food banks
- Counselling and support services for children
- Equipment or non-statutory services for nurseries or schools e.g. forest schools, library books
- Equipment for Brownie, Guide or Scout Groups e.g. camping equipment, badges
- Services or equipment to support children and young people’s health
- Equipment/kit for youth sports teams