Frequently Asked Questions

We can only fund activity focused on the UK. Your organisation doesn’t necessarily have to be based in the UK but the work you are doing needs to be clearly focused on the UK economy.

You do not have to be a charity to apply – we will fund any sort of organisation as long the work you’re asking us to support is charitable in its nature. This means that it should have what is formally recognised in the UK as a charitable purpose. You can find more information on this here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charitable-purposes/charitable-purposes

Yes, as long as the nature of your activity is a fit with our programme and charitable in its nature you can apply. We ask that you are hosted either by another constituted partner or by a fiscal hosting organisation. We can support you in looking into this as part of the application process.

Unless we specify that a special call is open to all, organisations can only hold one grant with us at a time to enable us to offer our resources out to as many relevant groups as possible. Please think carefully about which strand of funding is the most relevant to you.

You can of course apply for continuation funding during the lifetime of a grant. If your current grant is due to end in the next year then be aware of our funding timelines and build in sufficient time to reapply for further funding.

Yes, we do not place any restrictions on how many times you apply. If you are reapplying for the same work, please make sure you have taken account of the feedback you have received for previous applications.

Every year we receive far more applications than we can support. As of March 2026, since the NEI and TFS funding programmes opened in Summer 2025: 

• we have received 100 applications 

• of these, 28 were invited to the Stage 2 

• in total 10 grants have been made. 

This means that so far, the success rate from Stage 1 to Stage 2 is approximately 30% and the overall success rate has been 10%. We do not expect for the success rate to increase, as we anticipate receiving a higher number of applications for the remaining budget. 

From your initial contact with us until the final decision to fund takes around 6-9 months. Those declined at stage one will find out in about 3 months.

We will cover all and any costs associated with your work– we are a full cost recovery funder and recognise the need for organisations to seek funds to support their organisational capacity and to build healthy reserves.

Our funding budgets are always oversubscribed and we are often unable to meet the full costs of a project or activity. We fully encourage match funding and are happy to cooperate with other funders to support you. This is not a requirement but is something we see as a positive approach.

Our default position is to award unrestricted grants – a contribution to the work of an organisation or institution – if we believe that their general work aligns with our aims. On occasion we may have to offer a more restricted grant for a particular theme of work or project. Our programme staff will work through each application and explain this during the process.

Average grants are between £40,000 and £60,000 a year. 

Yes if you have a reason, i.e. your organisation is very young or very small or isn’t constituted. We will carry out due diligence checks during our assessment so you we will ask you to talk through your financial health with us.

If you are successful, we will send you some documents to complete in order to accept the grant. Once you have sent those back to us and we have confirmed that we have what we need you can start straight away. Following grantholder feedback we now pay our grantholders quarterly in advance. We will ask you to submit an invoice to us to claim your funds. At the end of each quarter we will ask you to reconcile your spend and will need this before the next quarter’s payment can be released.

We try to provide a high-level of customer service and be responsive to your needs, within the resourcing and operational constraints we have to operate to. Should you be unhappy with the way your application or grant is being administered, please raise this with your main contact in the first instance, who will try to put things right. If you are unhappy with the way in which your contact has tried to address your concerns and would like to raise a formal complaint, please write to the Foundation Director, who will try to resolve the matter. If your complaint relates to the Foundation Director, please write to the Chair of the Foundation. You can read more in our complaints policy.