What We Fund

The Trust provides two types of funding awards:

1) Main Grants, which are normally:

  • Between £5,001 and £60,000 in total, although in exceptional cases grants of up to £80,000 may be considered on a case-by-case basis
  • Spread across one, two or three years, with a £30,000 maximum per annum
  • Given in the form of a salary contribution (although occasionally grants are made to support the overall costs of a project)

Main Grant applications are considered at Trustee meetings that take place three times per year, in June, October and February.

Where a Main Grant has been awarded for a two year period, the Trust may consider renewing support for a third and final year, depending on project progress and reporting.

Main Grants are paid in annual instalments, subject to satisfactory progress and reporting.  Multi-year projects must provide annual reports to the Trust, and all grantees must provide a final report within six months of their grant’s completion. Following the completion of the grant, all grantees must complete an outcomes questionnaire and three years later an impact questionnaire. 

2) Small Grants – there are a limited number of small grants available each year, which are one-off grants for projects costing up to £5,000. Proposals for small grants are considered all year round and there are no application deadlines.

Applications for both types of grants must be made via the Trust’s online application form.

 

What type of projects does the Trust support?

The Trust funds projects that focus on the prevention (rather than the alleviation) of human suffering.  All Trust grants must fall under one or both of the following categories:

  • Innovative research projects: i.e. those which explore and test new ideas, methods, approaches, interventions and/or devices.
  • Pioneering / ground-breaking development projects: i.e. those which are original and represent the first of their kind and/or lay the foundations for further developments.

The Trustees are keen to support innovative and imaginative people — often promising young researchers — with whom they can keep in contact as their careers progress.

Please note the Trust does not provide retrospective funding, and if you are seeking continuation funding for an ongoing project then unfortunately we are not the funder for you.  For new projects that will then be ongoing, the Trust will prioritise work that has the potential to be self-supporting at the earliest possible moment.

 

Key points to note:

The Trust has three grant priority areas: Medical, Social and Religious, with education being a central theme that runs across all three. Our Trustees welcome projects that relate to more than one priority area.  More detailed information on the criteria for each priority area can be found through the links above or to the left.

All Trust funded projects must have strong dissemination plans, to ensure a positive impact on beneficiaries, service-delivery partners and policy makers beyond the project’s immediate beneficiaries.

The Trust will consider applications to fund implementation projects that are innovative, for example roll-outs of pioneering pilot work where significant further developments will take place as part of the implementation.  However, an application for a straightforward scale-up and expansion of an existing proven model would be less likely to meet the Trust’s innovation focus.  Applicants may find the following definition of implementation from The Colebrook Centre helpful: “…active and planned efforts to identify approaches or interventions that work and deliver them in ways that maximise and preserve their effectiveness.”

The Trust expects any interns engaged to deliver work supported by a grant from the Trust, to receive reasonable compensation for their work which, at a minimum, should be equivalent to the National Living Wage hourly rate.

International projects are supported, but grants are only paid to or through UK charitable organisations – primarily UK registered charities.  Other UK charitable organisational forms may be considered on a case-by-case basis.

The Trust is able to accept applications from CIC’s (Community Interest Companies) as long as their projects are to be delivered in a partnership with a UK charitable organisation. If your CIC is not also a UK registered charity, a Memorandum of Understanding between the partners would need to be submitted as part of the application, and any funding awarded by the Trust would need to be paid via the UK charitable organisation.

If you are awarded a grant the Trust will send you the grant offer paperwork to the email address registered on the Charity Commission or University website.  This will include a grant conditions document for you to sign and return to the Trust, along with your organisation’s banking details and any necessary ethical approval or other relevant documentation for the project.  Once these have been received, the first instalment can then be paid in the Trust’s next payment cycle.