Examples of Main Fund grants

The following information aims to provide potential applicants to the Main Fund with a greater sense of the type of grants we make. It should be read in conjunction with the Main Fund Guidance Notes.  The questions we seek to answer below are ones that tend to cause most difficulty for organisations reading our priorities.  As a large number of applications are rejected at first stage we hope that what follows assists organisations in making the decision about whether to apply to the Foundation.

Our latest annual report gives a full list of the grants made last year.

On this page:

1. As an organisation delivering local services, will we be eligible to apply?
2. Where do organisations like CABx and Age Concern stand?
3. Do you ever fund one off events or pieces of work?
4. When you say you are interested in projects that test out new ideas or practices, what does this mean in reality?
5. I think my project develops and strengthens good practice. How do I know you will think the same?
6. What is your position on funding campaigns?

1. As an organisation delivering local services, will we be eligible to apply?

We receive many applications from excellent organisations addressing significant gaps in provision in their local areas.  Most are declined, however, mainly because the services they deliver are found in many other parts of the UK and it would be difficult to justify support for one over another. The exceptions we make tend to be for local organisations that either:

• offer outstanding examples of effective or new practice which other organisations can learn from; or
• are seeking to extend their reach and influence.
  

Examples include:

The Boatshed Multi-Use Centre is a community resource in Lincolnshire with an impressive track record of achievement. The application had several distinctive features. The Centre provides a crucial hub for a growing range of services catering to a large disadvantaged and isolated community. It has also successfully begun to generate its own income. A small grant has allowed the Centre to continue to employ its first paid member of staff.

The Calthorpe Project, a community garden in a built up area, has successfully attracted volunteers and users from diverse ethnic backgrounds to take part in its innovative cultural and environmental programme. With a modest grant, the organisation is continuing to extend the reach of its community work.

Finchley Children’s Music Group runs four choirs offering 60 young people from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to sing to an exceptionally high standard.  There is relatively little choral material for children. The Group has led the field, commissioning new choral works for children and reaching audiences unlikely to attend opera.  A small grant will help to stage a new children’s opera on themes of good and evil which is likely to become popular repertoire for other young singers.

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2. Where do organisations like CABx and Age Concern stand?

We do not support the routine services that are normally delivered by agencies that are part of or affiliated to a wider network such as Age Concern, CABx, Mind. To that list, we would add volunteer centres and council of voluntary service agencies. 

We make occasional exceptions to this rule where the proposal is clearly for pioneering work that is likely to have a wider impact. For example, we funded Oxford Citizens Advice Bureau, to pilot a project that trained serving prisoners as volunteer advice workers, building skills and increasing confidence. Some went on to work in the advice sector on their release. Another innovative criminal justice project, Blue Sky Development and Regeneration was originally set up as a Thames Valley Groundwork initiative and justified the exception by creating dozens of jobs for ex-offenders while becoming close to self-sustaining.

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3. Do you ever fund one off events or pieces of work?

We rarely support festivals and one off productions. Where we do, for example North Highland Connections (an arts festival), we look for high quality programmes that are likely to have a continuing impact in areas with little alternative provision.

As we say in the Main Fund Guidance, we rarely support research proposals and only do so where applicants can demonstrate a significant practical benefit. For example, in the past we funded influential research by the Buttle Trust which resulted in improved levels of practical support for children in care going to university.

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4. When you say you are interested in projects that test out new ideas or practices, what does this mean in reality?

We are keen to back the development of new ideas and practices, even where this involves a degree of risk. For example, last year we supported the enterprising Sandbag Climate Campaign in its quest to persuade large companies to reduce their targets for carbon emissions. In the education sector, we were delighted to support Sistema Scotland. Using techniques pioneered successfully in Venezuela, Sistema aspires to transform the lives of 5,000 children in one of the most deprived areas of Scotland through participation in group and orchestral music making.

In London, Stars in the Sky set out to address a shortage of opportunities for adults with learning difficulties to interact and pursue leisure interests.  It was the first organisation to launch a network of ground breaking clubs across the UK where members can meet on their own terms to socialise and develop new interests including street dance and jazz. 

We do not usually fund organisations with large turnovers – over £6m per annum.  However, we will consider support for pilots and early development where an organisation is developing new practice that is likely to have a wider impact.  We supported Shelter to coordinate a multi-agency strategy aimed at helping the children of families that had been evicted for anti-social behaviour. The programme trials new methods and looks set to change the way local authorities treat such cases in the future.

Applications fitting this priority comprise activities that are genuinely new to the area and introduce unusual approaches that are likely to influence practice elsewhere.

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5. I think my project develops and strengthens good practice. How do I know you will think the same?

We back organisations that set high operational standards for others to aspire to, as well as those that work strategically to make the voluntary sector more effective.

The Opera Group grew from a small-scale touring company to one that co-produces works with national partners such as the Young Vic Theatre Company.  Its work is innovative, merging the best of contemporary music and theatre and is often based in unusual settings.  A grant to support the salary of a producer helped the organisation to refine ways of working which offer a useful model for other small touring companies.  Basantu Outreach Project works with African refugees in East London and has strong productive relationships with voluntary and statutory agencies in the area.  Following a comprehensive review of users’ needs, it has launched a befriending project which will help to introduce isolated clients to mainstream activities.  Funderfinder addresses a real need in the sector by producing computer packages that help organisations to track down funders who might support their work. Our grant will help to install the service on the web, making funding advice and information more readily accessible to organisations across the country and strengthening practice in the voluntary sector.

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6. What is your position on funding campaigns?

We sometimes support campaigns where they are likely to have a positive social, educational or environmental impact. For example, Women’s Aid Federation received a grant to extend a powerful campaign to influence young people’s attitudes to domestic violence. Talk to your Baby was supported to raise parental awareness of the benefits of talk for young children’s longer term social and educational development. Both campaigns were part of the organisations’ core business and based on a strong track record for this kind of work.

We do not confine our grant-making to one off campaigns and our grant to the Media Standards Trust reflected our interest in their continuing work to ensure that news journalists maintain the highest ethical standards.

Strong applications in this field need to convince us that they are likely to have a positive impact on people’s lives at a national or UK-wide level. Where campaigns are local, they will need to demonstrate innovative features, or that effects will not be limited to one area.  Campaigns must not be narrowly political and need to demonstrate that they are in line with Charity Commission guidance.

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