Supporting Resilience Fund

The Supporting Resilience Fund is our latest Funder Plus support offer to our grant holders.
Open to existing holders of Small Grants, the fund offers funding of between £2,000-£10,000 for one year.
The fund is focused on supporting our grant holders to become strong and resilient organisations which can embrace opportunities and overcome challenges. Funding will enable organisations to invest internally for their growth and development.
This funding is self-directed, allowing organisations to decide what and how they invest in their organisation. We encourage organisations to reflect on issues such as current organisation structure, governance, procedures, staff welfare, core staff skills and identify areas for investment that would lead to a more robust organisation.

How much can you apply for

Funding of between £2,000-£10,000 for one year is available to grant holders to undertake work which contributes to organisational and staff resilience.
To access higher levels of funding (£7k–10k), we ask organisations to provide a comprehensive plan of work that addresses the root causes of the issues they face. For example, if an organisation is experiencing staff burnout due to high demand, it might review its processes and identify needs such as a CRM system and management training in resource planning. This approach highlights both the immediate concern and the underlying factors contributing to burnout. As it requires a greater level of organisational investment, we consider such plans for higher-level awards
For examples of the type of work we may fund, please see the recent blog on our Plus Fund Pilot which influenced the creation of the Supporting Resilience Fund.
This fund has a set budget of £300K for the current financial year. Once this allocation is reached, the fund will close to new applications, and we will notify all grant holders that the annual budget has been fully allocated.
At present, only organisations currently holding Small Grants are eligible to apply. We plan to open this opportunity to other funded organisations in future years.
The application form link will only be provided after a discussion with a Funding Officer, so we can advise you if the fund is approaching its budget limit.

Please note that we will not contribute to general delivery costs through this Fund. We will only fund work which addresses organisational resilience and/ or staff resilience and wellbeing.

How to apply

We know fundraising takes time and resources, so we’ve tried to streamline the process with a two-stage application. We hope this will support organisations in developing stronger applications and increase the chances of success.

If you have a project in mind, email us at funderplus@therobertsontrust.org.uk with a short description of the work (1–2 sentences). For example:

We would like to apply for funding for a new CRM system to improve our resource management
We would like to send two new members of our senior management team on training strategic planning and organisational development to help with long term succession planning
Our staff are experiencing increasing levels of conflict and threat of physical harm and we would like funding to send staff on self-defence and upgrade our building security

A Funding Officer will get in touch to offer advice or to discuss your potential application further. They will then provide a link to a short online application form, designed to capture the key ideas and costings of your proposal.

If you have any difficulty completing the form online, please contact us and a member of our team will be happy to help.

We aim to notify you of our decision within 12 weeks of receiving your application.

Work funded should be completed within 12 months, but for larger awards (£7-10k) we may consider extending the timeline to 18 months. If you believe the work proposed requires more than 12 months to complete, please state this in your application.

Evaluation
To help us understand the impact of this support on your organisation, and identify trends in the work we fund in this way, we will be inviting successful applicants to complete a short report form 12 months after they receive their award.

FAQs

We consider applications for proposed work from £2,000 to £10,000.

This is a new approach for The Robertson Trust, providing our funded partners with the freedom to choose the support that is right for them. This should be informed by your organisation’s immediate needs and help to shape your vision for the future.

The proposed expenditure should address an identified issue which relates to creating a strong resilient organisation or staff resilience and wellbeing. This excludes any cost associated with service delivery.

We encourage grant holders to be creative in finding solutions to challenges their organisations face. However, during the pilot phase, certain types of support are not eligible under this fund:

Existing, expanding, or new services – This fund is designed to complement your main grant funding by strengthening organisational resilience, not to fund service delivery. We recognise that sourcing funding for service delivery can limit budgets for non-delivery work, and this fund aims to address that gap.
New or temporary posts – We may consider supporting the extension of an existing post only if it clearly builds skills and capacity across the organisation. For example, funding a temporary increase in a part-time staff member’s hours to undertake training or work related to the application.
Fundraising – This includes outsourced fundraising or fundraising posts. We may consider training for staff to improve fundraising skills, but not one-off consultancy costs. (Free consultancy on business or fundraising plans is available via Community Enterprise through your Funding Officer.)
General IT – Routine IT costs are not eligible. However, new software such as CRM or accounting systems that improve operational capacity may be considered.
Free support already available elsewhere – This includes support offered by other Funder Plus programmes, other grant makers, Third Sector Interfaces, or existing funded programmes (e.g., Just Enterprise). Further information on available support is on our website: Useful Links and Resources.
Evaluation costs – Costs associated with demonstrating the impact of your organisation or services are not eligible.

Plus Fund Recipients

Hear from some of the recipients of the Plus Fund, a pilot which helped to inform the development of the Supporting Resilience Fund.