Clothworkers Foundation: Main Grants Programme
Overview
For larger projects (£100,000+), they generally fund 10% or more of the balance to be raised. For example, if your project cost was £200,000 and you had £150,000 left to raise, the grant award would be at least £15,000. The larger a project, the larger their grant is likely to be.
Open Grant Programme Areas
The Clothworkers Foundation aims through its funding to improve the quality of life, particularly for people and communities facing disadvantage. It seeks to achieve its aims primarily through making grants in the following areas:
- Alcohol and substance misuse - organisations supporting people and families affected by drugs and/or alcohol misuse.
- People with disabilities - organisations providing services for people with physical and/or learning disabilities, and/or for people with mental health issues.
- Disadvantaged minority communities - organisations that work with minority communities facing both disadvantage (e.g. economic or cultural) and discrimination (e.g. due to ethnicity, sexuality, faith) to promote integration with mainstream society by providing: 1. specialist services and/or access to mainstream services.
- Disadvantaged young people - organisations that support disadvantaged young people, particularly (but not limited to) those in or leaving care, or not in employment, education, or training.
- Domestic and sexual abuse - organisations supporting people affected by domestic or sexual violence.
- Older people - organisations providing services for older people, in particular those living in areas of high deprivation and/or where rural isolation is an issue.
- Homelessness - organisations providing services for people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
- Prisoners and ex-offenders - organisationss supporting prisoners and/or ex-offenders, or those at risk of offending, and their families.
- Visual impairment - projects providing services for blind or visually impaired people.
Who can apply
You must demonstrate your not-for-profit status in the application form and your accounts. They fund the following types of charitable and not-for-profit organisations:
- Charities registered with the Charity Commission including Community Interest Organisations (CIO)
- Community Interest Companies (limited by guarantee without share capital)
- ‘Exempt Charities’ (in which case we require details of your principal regulator and/or evidence of HMRC exemption)
- Special Schools
They do not fund organisations that do not meet these requirements and a ‘Constitution’ document alone is not a sufficient demonstration of eligibility.
What they fund
They award grants to UK registered charities, CICs, and other registered UK not-for-profit organisations (including special schools). Grants are awarded towards capital projects which they define as:
- Buildings: purchase, construction, renovation or refurbishment.
- Fittings, Fixtures, and Equipment: this includes but is not limited to office equipment/furniture, sports/gym equipment, digital/audio visual equipment, garden equipment, specialist therapeutic (excluding medical) equipment. It does not include equipment for one-off use, or which will be given to service users for personal use on a permanent basis.
- Vehicles: This includes a minibus, car, caravan, people-carrier, or 4X4. They are unlikely to fund the total cost of a new vehicle.
They fund both large and small projects. The size of grant awarded will depend on a number of factors including the size of your organisation and the cost and scale of your capital project. Please complete their Eligibility Quiz to check your organisation's eligibility and to decide which type of application you should complete.
You must be able to demonstrate that the work of your organisation fits within one or more of their programme areas, and that at least 50% of service users benefiting from the capital project are from one or more of those groups.
For answers to FAQ's, click here