Small Grants

This is one of our four funding offers for registered charities groups who work to address poverty and trauma in Scotland. For more details of the kind of work we fund, take a look at Who and what we fund.

Overview

• For registered charities with an annual income* of between £25,000 and £100,000
• Revenue funding* of between £2,000 and £15,000 for up to five years
• Unrestricted or restricted funding*
• Can include the costs of equipment to support your work
• Due to upcoming changes to Our Funds, the last date to apply is 12 noon, Friday 31st May 2024.
• We will aim to give you a decision within 8 to 10 weeks. We're currently receiving increased numbers of applications across Our Funds however. The Team is continuing to work hard to respond to requests and assess new applications within our published deadlines, but if there are any changes to this we'll notify applicants on an individual basis.

Organisations of this size may also apply for a Community Vehicle Grant.

*Definitions:

Annual Income: This is based on the money your organisation received in the last financial year, as shown in your most recent annual accounts. If you are a new organisation, which has not yet produced accounts, you can base this on the income you expect to bring in in the year ahead. As a general rule, we will only accept applications for Small Grants from charities whose annual income is between £25K-£100K. There are some cases where we will make exceptions, for example, if your income last year was less than £25K but you are growing your activities and projecting increased costs, or if your income was affected by COVID but has been within the threshold in previous years. If you would like to be considered for a Small Grant but you’re still not sure if it’s right for your charity, please call us on 0141 353 4321 to discuss.

Revenue funding: is used to cover the costs of providing day-to-day services. We can provide revenue funding in two ways:

Unrestricted funding: can be spent on annual running costs of your organisation, such as salaries, heating, lighting, administration, consumables and small items of equipment. We particularly welcome applications for unrestricted funding where the work of your organisation addresses one or more of our four Primary Themes. We can however consider the costs of projects and specific salaries or activities if this will better meet your needs.  

Restricted funding: can only be used for a specific project, activity or designated purpose, as applied for or identified and agreed by us.

Guidance highlights – you’ll need:

• At least three unconnected Trustees on your charity’s Board
• Recent independently examined or audited annual accounts
• A safeguarding policy if working with young or vulnerable people
• A full job description if your request is for funding towards a specific salary cost.