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Grant Assessment Process

Before submitting an application, charitable organisations should check their eligibility against the following core criteria:   We will only fund UK-registered organisations that are:

  • Registered charities,
  • Community  Interest Companies (“CICs”),
  • Charitable Incorporated Organisations (“CIOs”),
  • Community benefit Societies (“CBSs”).

…and that have

  • Annual income of less than £500,000
  • Been established for two or more years
  • A skilled team of staff and/or volunteers

Once an application has been submitted, we will check that these criteria are met and that the application broadly fits with our objectives, described elsewhere:  transforming young lives, increasing social impact and building capacity.

We will aim to respond to all applications within two weeks after this initial assessment. If unsuccessful we will tell the applicant and provide some constructive feedback.

If successful we will contact the applicant directly and enter into a second assessment stage: due diligence. During this stage we will contact the organisation to understand more about the application the charity itself and its objectives and carry out some more detailed checks. 

One Trustee from the charitable fund will be appointed as a “grant assessor” and carry out these checks.  During this process applicants should expect to provide some, or all, of the following documents:

  • recent financial statements including annual returns as published on the Companies House or Charity Commission websites
  • business plans or detailed project plans, explaining the planned transformational impact
  • details about trustees / directors and management team of the applying organistion
  • information relating to social impact - we are looking for robust evidence of impact in line with most what most charitable organisations require these days
  • evidence of the connection between the organisation’s activities and our goal of “Transforming Young Lives”

The grant assessor will produce their own written assessment on behalf of the charity using a prescribed format. This includes subjective scoring against the three criteria outlined above. The grant assessor will communicate with the applicant about this assessment because at this stage we often find that we are able to help refine and improve the grant request. 

At the conclusion of this exercise the grant assessor will make a recommendation to the Trustees. These assessments and recommendations will be considered at a Trustees Board meeting. These are held only four times per year and we cannot therefore guarantee to provide a definitive outcome on any grant application in anything less than three months.

If you require any further information about this process, please contact the Clerk.