Small grants of between £100-£1,000 are available to small charities who are temporarily struggling but otherwise viable.
The Small Charities Coalition has been awarded £50,000 from the Betty Messenger Charitable Foundation to make available as small grants to organisations who are temporarily struggling, but otherwise viable. The Small Charities Coalition is not taking an administration fee for this work, so 100% of the funding will go directly to small charities.
It is our intention to run the grant programme in a manner than informs our individual and collective thinking about grant making. We will be using participatory grant making techniques and are inviting Coalition members to have an active role in the assessment and decision-making process, by volunteering as grant panel members
Apply to join the Grant Assessment Panel
Applicants will need to commit to at least one online meeting for 2 hours.
We are particularly keen to hear from people who have NOT previously assessed grants. A proportion of places on each panel will also be reserved from people from protected characteristic communities, ie BAME, LGBT+, Disability groups.
Applications are welcome from anyone involved with your organisation, trustees, volunteers or staff.
To avoid any conflict of interest, if your organisation is also applying for funding, we will allocate you a place on the assessment panel on a different month.
Apply to join the SCC Grant Assessment Panel
Eligibility, Criteria and Process
Betty Messenger Charitable Foundation Small Grants (administered by the Small Charities Coalition)
Small grants of between £100-£1,000 are available to small charities who are temporarily struggling but otherwise viable.
This guidance describes what the fund will support and how to apply.
Type of organisation
- Grants are made to organisations that are primarily UK-based, and when overseas only through UK-based charities.
- Funding is only available to registered charities.
- Organisations must have been established for at least one year and must be able to produce either independently examined or management accounts.
Definition of small
The definition of a small charity is any organisation with an income of under £1 million.
Particular areas of interest
- Care of those suffering from disease
- Caring in the community for disabled and people on the margin
- End of life
- Education
- Interfaith projects with a focus engendering tolerance and breaking down prejudice
- Medical projects
- Exclusions
- General appeals
- Individuals
- Non-registered charities
- Organisations which adopt a partisan political stance or activities which are party political
Please make sure you read the Betty Messenger Grant Making Requirements document which outlines the Foundation’s expectations of grantees. You can download a copy here
Process
- This is a rolling programme – the deadline for applications is the 20th of each month.
- Completed application forms must be submitted to grants@smallcharities.org.uk
- Emails to other SCC email addresses or postal applications will not be accepted.
- If we require further information and clarity on any aspect of your application we will contact you a maximum of three times, after which if we have not heard from you, your application will be withdrawn.
- Applications from non SCC members are welcome
- A panel will be convened during the last week of the month to assess all applications who have passed due diligence.
- All applicants will be notified of the decision on their application by the 10th of the following month.
- Unsuccessful applicants are asked to wait three months before reapplying.
- A sample of the monitoring report required at the end of the funding, can be seen here Download the BMCF Funding Application Form (in word)