We only registered as a charity a few months ago, are we eligible to apply?
You can apply if your charity has been operating as a formally constituted charity for at least three years. Many charities are started informally by a group of friends. They later become constituted formally, with a committee, annual accounts and a bank account. Later still they decide to become a registered charity. We count the three years from the time the charity adopted a formal constitution and appointed a committee. If you apply to us you will have to send your most recent annual report and accounts, even if they were produced before you became a formally registered charity.
We have been operating for the last six years but we have only just applied for charity registration. Can we apply now and send you our charity number when we receive it?
No. It can take a while to become registered. Do not send in an application until you have your charity number from the Charity Commission.
We do not have our own charity number but our local Community Association or CVS is willing to accept grants on our behalf. Can we apply using their number?
No. You must have your own charity number.
We don't have a charity number because we are a church community project. Does that mean we can't apply?
If your church denomination is one of those that still has excepted charity status and your project is part of the work of a local church then you can apply for funding so long as the whole annual expenditure of the local church is less than our £60,000 upper limit. We will need the annual report and accounts of the local church or parish, which should include the accounts for your project, even though you may have a separate bank account.
We don't have our own charity number because we are part of a national charity and we use their number but we don't get any funding from the national charity. Are we eligible for funding?
No. We do not give grants to branches of national charities unless the branch is separately registered with the Charity Commission and has its own charity number.
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We are registered in England but we raise funds for children in Eastern Europe. Are we eligible?
No. We only fund work to benefit people living in England and Wales.
Our charity spends more than £60,000 a year in total but we are looking for funding for a project that only costs £15,000 a year. Can we apply just for that project?
No. We look at the size of the whole charity, not just the size of the project. With relatively small amounts to give, the trustees have decided to concentrate on very small charities and to publicise the upper size limit to save the time of applicants from larger charities.
Our charity's expenditure is bigger than £60,000 but that is mostly for salaries. We only need money for the other running costs. Can we apply?
No. The charity is bigger than our upper limit. See the answer above.
Our accounts show expenditure of more than £60,000 last year but a big grant is soon going to finish. Are we excluded because of last year's expenditure?
You might be eligible to apply. We understand the situation that faces a small charity when a big grant ceases. What we need to know is how much your charity expects to spend the year after the large grant has finished. Are you hoping to continue at the larger size or are you planning to reduce your work and operate on a budget that is less than £60,000 a year? If you will be operating at less than £60,000 we will consider an application though we will need to see a convincing budget.
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Your guidelines say we should not apply if we still need more than £10,000. We are still trying to raise £25,000 for next year. Does that mean we can't apply yet?
Our policy of not being willing to make a maximum first year grant of £3,000 into a funding gap that is greater than £10,000, is to avoid the situation where a charity needs to raise so much money that our small grant is of no realistic help. If you are intending to ask for core funding and the gap is more than £10,000, you need to secure some funding from other sources before coming to us. If you are looking to fund several projects, that could operate independently, and there is a project that needs less than £10,000, it may be possible to make an application now. Contact our administrator for more advice.
What do you mean when you ask for our current year's budget?
Fill in on page 1 of the form the amount your charity expects to spend in its current financial year. We know it will be an estimate but it gives an indication of whether the charity is growing, reducing, or staying about the same size.
What do you want us to fill in on page three of the form in the budget section?
For many applicants, who are asking for a contribution to their general running costs, the budget will be for the whole organisation and will show your predicted total expenditure and the amount of money you have already secured.
Some applicants are asking for funding just for one project out of several. In that case the budget will be how much you expect to spend on that project and will show us how much you have secured for that project.
We do not want just a breakdown of how you would spend the exact amount you are asking for. What we need is an idea of how a grant from us would fit into the whole organisation or the particular project.
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We are run totally by volunteers at present but we have grown and really need to employ a worker to do some of the admin. It is to continue the same work we are already doing so can we apply for the salary?
No. What you are planning is to set up a new paid post. It is a normal part of growth but because you do not have a paid worker at present you can ask funders who will fund new ventures. You can ask us to make a grant when you already have a paid worker and are grappling with the problem of finding funding to continue the post.
Our premises are in a terrible state and we need to do some major renovation work. We can usually raise the money for running costs ourselves but we can't afford these repairs. Would you pay for our running costs for a year so we can spend all our normal income on the repair work?
No. We do not offer grants for the major costs of renovating buildings because there are other funders who prefer to fund those one-off costs and will not give grants for running costs. Asking us to release your normal income for renovation costs is an indirect way of asking us to fund your renovations.
Will we stand a better chance of a grant if we only ask for one year?
No. We offer grants to help sustain running costs and salaries so we expect most applicants to need a grant for more than one year and most of our grants are for more than one year. Sometimes a charity does need a single grant and makes that clear in their application. But we do not encourage applicants to apply for a single grant year after year. That approach wastes time and energy for both the applicants and ourselves.
We had a grant two years ago, can we apply again now?
Yes if your charity still fits within our basic eligibility criteria. We used to make recipients wait for three years between grants
but that is no longer the case.
