Capital Grants
Capital grants of £10,000 or more are available through our Main Grants Programme.
Capital grants are one off grants towards the purchase of equipment, or for the purchase or refurbishment of a building.
Please read our Terms and Conditions of Accepting a Capital Grant before you apply to check that you would be able to meet them. Please pay particular attention to the fact that the grant must be drawn down within three years of award.
Details of the types of grants we made across all our grant programmes can be found on the What We Fund page of our website. The activities or services that we will not fund are listed on the Not Normally Funded page.
We recommend that you download the Word or PDF version of the Guidelines at the bottom of this page and read them in full before starting your application.
Each of our grant programmes has separate guidelines. For information about applying for a Revenue grant through the Main Grants Programme, a Small or County grant, or for any of our other grants, please refer to the guidelines for those programmes.
How to apply for a Capital grant
Applications for Capital grants can be submitted at any time, provided that
- you do not have an active grant from us;
- we are not already assessing an application to one of our other programmes; and
- if you applied previously and were unsuccessful, that more than 12 months has passed since you received your declination letter.
There are no deadlines and we do not have an application form, though we do ask you to complete an Application Cover Sheet. This can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.
Before you apply please read our Terms and Conditions of Accepting a Capital Grant thoroughly. If a grant is awarded, no payments will be made unless you are able to meet these terms and conditions.
Mail shots and general requests for donations will not be considered.
The Application Cover Sheet should be completed and submitted as part of your application. This provides us with key information; your organisation name, full contact details, the name and email address of your main contact, and gives us an idea of the project or work you want us to fund and the amount of the grant you are requesting. It also asks for confirmation that your organisation has a Child Protection Policy (if applicable to your work) and that CRB Disclosure checks are carried out on all staff and volunteers working with children or vulnerable people.
Applications should be no longer than four sides of A4 and in font size no smaller than 11 point.
Begin your application with a half page summary. This should primarily focus on the project or work you are asking us to fund, though you may also wish to include a sentence or two about your organisation. The summary is important as it will form the basis of the information we send to Trustees at stage two of our assessment process.
Your application should clearly and concisely describe the project or activities you are seeking funding for, and include all the following information:
- Full contact details, including a telephone number, name, job title the email address of your main contact.
- Details of your organisation’s status (e.g. registered charity, company limited by guarantee, not for profit organisation or community interest company).
- State clearly what your organisation does, who you are, where you operate and who your organisation helps.
- If you are a branch of, or related to, a larger organisation, please clarify the nature of the relationship with specific reference to potential and existing financial support.
- Project details:
• Describe why the project you are seeking funding for is needed. If you are seeking funds for a new building or renovation please explain how your existing facilities are used and how your proposed development will improve the services you provide.
• What activities will be delivered in the newly built/refurbished premises, or using any funded equipment?
• How many people will benefit?
• Describe how the project will be managed and name the people who will be in charge of it, their experience and qualifications for the job.
• How will you ensure that it is cost-effective?
• Describe your fundraising strategy for this project. This should include details of funds you have secured and applications pending. Please note we will expect you to have approached local and regional sources of funding prior to applying to us. If it is not appropriate to do so in this instance, please tell us why. - Give the names and addresses of two independent referees (i.e. someone who does not currently benefit from your services or that will benefit from you gaining a grant, i.e. not a Trustee, employee or volunteer).
Please keep your application as simple as possible and avoid the use of technical jargon. Please do not include electronic media (e.g. DVDs) with your application.
Your application must be signed and should either be printed on your organisation's headed paper or accompanied by a covering letter on headed paper.
Attachments
Please attach a detailed budget for the proposed project. If your request is for part funding, please explain where the balance of funds will be/has been raised from and make it clear what has been committed to date.
Please enclose your most recent full audited or independently inspected accounts. These must be no more than 10 months old (if the accounts show a significant surplus or deficit of income, or high reserves, please explain how this has arisen). If your accounts are more than 10 months old, please send up-to-date management accounts as well as your audited accounts.
Your budget and accounts are additional to your four page application.
What will happen to my application?
Before we begin to assess your application an initial check is undertaken to ensure that all the required information has been included. If, for example, an application is not signed or received with no accounts or project budget, it will be returned unread. Please make sure that you read our guidelines carefully before submitting your application.
Our assessment process has four key stages; additional information may be requested at any point, for instance, during Stage One we may ask you for recent financial information such as management accounts that are no more than three months old, an income and expenditure budget and a detailed summary of your fundraising position.
Stage One
Applications are initially reviewed by the Grants Team. If your application is eligible, we will write to you to acknowledge its receipt and to confirm that it is progressing to the next stage. Your acknowledgement letter should be sent to you within six weeks.
Ineligible applications will be sent a letter of rejection.
Stage Two
If your application fits our guidelines a summary of your application will be sent to our Trustees for their comments. Completion of this stage can take up to eight weeks from the date we acknowledge your application. If there is sufficient support for your application a visit will then be arranged so that we can assess your project in more detail. Applications that do not progress beyond this stage will be sent a letter of rejection.
Stage Three
If your application reaches this stage, one of our team of Volunteer Visitors, or a member of staff will be in touch to arrange to come and discuss your project and organisation. The visit can take up to three hours and will include an assessment of your request for funding, your organsation’s governance and management, financial stability and fundraising strategy. During a visit we would expect to meet with staff and a Board Member or Trustee.
Once a visit has taken place, a report will be written for consideration by our Trustees.
Stage Four
Our Trustees meet quarterly in March, June, September and December. Decisions about whether or not to award grants are made by Trustees at these meetings. We will write to you to let you know the outcome of your application within two weeks of the meeting taking place.
It can take up to six months for you to receive a decision from the date we receive your application. We cannot guarantee that your application will go to a particular meeting as this is dependent on the number of applications we receive.
Applicants who are unsuccessful are required to wait a minimum of 12 months from the date of notification before re-applying.
Please note that whilst your application may fit our guidelines, a significant number of applications will be unsuccessful due to the high numbers we receive.
We reserve the right to share with other grant makers information received from applicants requesting funding and from those in receipt of a grant from us, unless an organisation expressly requests otherwise.
Downloadable Documents
Links to documents open in a new window.
Capital Main Grant Programme Guidelines - Word
Capital Main Grant Programme Guidelines - PDF
We recommend that you save the Cover Sheet onto your computer before you start to complete it (select the “save” option when downloading).
Terms and Conditions of Accepting a Capital Grant - PDF