Grants of between £10,000 and £200,000 over 1-3 years are available to a wide range of UK charitable organisations for strategic work, including policy work, campaigning and research, which has the potential to improve financial wellbeing on a regional or national scale.
Funding is available for a range of strategic work that will benefit more than individuals and has the potential to benefit large numbers of people within the UK. This work must aim to create a step change in policy, practice, attitudes and/or behaviour. It includes policy work, campaigning, research, public attitudinal work, and improving practice and design.
The programme aims to achieve and benefit the following:
• Address specific inequalities, differences and vulnerabilities.
• Improving the lives of those living on low-to-middle incomes in the UK who are struggling to make ends meet, and who are cycling in and out of hardship. Whilst it’s vital to ensure that those facing financial hardship are supported, the Trust also believes it’s important to prevent people falling into financial difficulties. A priority for them is work focussed on younger generations.
• People who are vulnerable financially. This is where people, due to their personal circumstances, are especially susceptible to financial detriment, particularly when a firm, government or other organisation is not acting with appropriate levels of care. This includes vulnerability as a result of health problems, disability, or due to a problematic situation such as redundancy, bereavement or divorce. Some groups are more affected than others. For example, disabled people, black and minority ethnic communities and single parents are more likely to have low incomes and have few assets compared to others. These problems can be even greater for those facing multiple disadvantages
• Work that addresses the root causes, rather than supporting individual beneficiaries, is a more sustainable approach to improving financial wellbeing.
While there is no minimum or maximum grant size, grants usually range from between £10,000 and £200,000, with most awards being between £50,000 to £120,000 in total. The amounts may be spread over 1, 2 or 3 years, and sometimes for shorter periods such as six months. For example, a grant of £60,000 could be spread as £20,000 each year over 3 years, or £40,000 in the first year and £20,000 in the second. The Trust expects to fund 15-20 projects across the UK each year through application windows in January and June.
Funding is normally awarded for a specific project and sometimes for on-going costs. This includes staff salaries and overheads. Details of projects funded in previous years can be found on the Trust's website.
The deadline for outline applications is Saturday 5 February 2024 at 1pm. The second application deadline for 2024 is likely to be at 1pm on Wednesday 5 June 2024.