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The Hargreaves Foundation: Transforming young lives through sport and education

Open or will open again Children (0-12) Education and learning Health, wellbeing and sport Sport and physical recreation Young people (13-25) Antrim & Newtownabbey Ards & North Down Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Belfast City Causeway Coast and Glens Derry City and Strabane England Fermanagh and Omagh Great Britain Lisburn and Castlereagh Mid and East Antrim Mid Ulster Newry, Mourne and Down Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Large (over £60,000) Medium (up to £60,000) Small (up to £10,000)

Overview

The Foundation’s objectives are underpinned by the desire to give those under the age of 18, and living with a mental health condition, disability, or growing up in poverty, the opportunity to fulfil their potential whilst improving wellbeing, self-esteem and independence.

The Foundation can fund clearly defined projects, initiatives or the purchase of specific items that support one or more of the following:

  • Enables individuals to experience the mental and physical health benefits of participatory sport
  • Ensures participatory sport is accessible
  • Provides sporting or educational activities that foster life skills
  • Aims to improve academic engagement and attainment
  • Encourages the development of skills and personal attributes to aid future employability

It is the intention of the Trustees to consider a targeted approach to funding and seek out opportunities which provide scope to 'materially change the life of an individual'.

They will only consider funding projects, initiatives or items where under 18s who meet their criteria are the primary focus. This means they will not consider requests which benefit mixed ages or mixed groups, where under 18s who meet their criteria happen to be in the majority. 

Instead they expect the whole purpose and focus to be about supporting young people who are under 18 and living with a mental health condition, disability, or growing up in poverty. 

Funding Available

It is the intention of the Trustees to distribute the annual income available to The Foundation, likely to be in the region of £2,000,000 per annum.

Grants will only be allocated to fund defined projects, initiatives or the purchase of specific items and wherever possible payments will be made directly to suppliers.

They have no maximum or minimum grant size. They will consider contributions to larger projects. 

It will need to be clear what their funding will cover. If successful, they will pledge and won’t pay a grant until all the funds needed are secured. 

Examples of funded projects

They want to fund life-changing interventions that make a material difference in the lives of young people. 

They will fund:

  • Projects, initiatives or the purchase of specific items
  • Projects that fit with our objective and priorities
  • Projects that involve participatory sport or education
  • Projects where the primary focus is under 18s living with a mental health condition, disability, or growing up in poverty
  • One-off, time-limited projects
  • Training for staff/volunteers
  • Residential activities
  • Events
  • Equipment and capital costs
  • Activity taking place in UK

Eligibility

They will consider applications from the following:

  • Registered Charities or Charitable Incorporated Organisations
  • Schools and Further Education Colleges (usually exempt charities)
  • NHS Trusts

Organisations must have:

  • At least one set of published accounts at the point of applying
  • A bank account in the organisation’s name with at least two unconnected signatories
  • (for charities) At least 3 unconnected Trustees

They receive more applications than they can fund and give priority to organisations based in and/or working in the South West of England.

What do they look to fund

Successful applications will clearly show how they are connected to participatory sport or education.

They ask applicants to demonstrate poverty using recognised indicators such as being eligible for free school meals or a college bursary for those aged between 16 and 18 years or, for early years, living in a household that has less than 60% median household income (after housing costs and allowing for the additional costs of any disability). However, they don’t just want general statistics for a geographical area, they want to know about the situation of the individual young people who are being supported.