Motability Foundation: Better Access to Wheelchairs and Mobility Aids: Small Grants

Overview

This funding round aims to make an impact by awarding grants to improve and expand access to good quality, affordable wheelchairs and mobility equipment for disabled people.

This funding round provides grants to organisations working on a local or regional level or supporting smaller numbers of disabled people.

It funds access to wheelchairs and mobility equipment, and additional support such as assessments and maintenance.

Requests can include the costs for manual and powered wheelchairs, power packs, walking aids, staff costs and overheads.

Who your project can support

Grant funding must be used to support disabled people living in the UK.

Projects can provide support on a national scale or focus on specific regions, addressing local needs and challenges.

They're particularly interested in funding projects that deliver meaningful impact in deprived areas, or to underrepresented groups.

Who can apply

They're particularly interested in applications from DDPOs (Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations).

They can accept applications for funding if your organisation has been active for at least three years and is one of the following:

• Incorporated Charity
• Company Limited by Guarantee
• Community Interest Company (CIC)
• Community Benefit Society

To be considered for funding, your organisation’s Board must:

• be made up of at least three members, and
• the majority of Board members must be unrelated to each other.

Applicant organisations should have:

• an annual income of at least £50,000 for each of the last three financial years. This is assessed against accounts filed with the relevant regulator. We cannot accept management accounts as evidence of this.
• free reserves equivalent to at least three months’ worth of unrestricted expenditure at the point of application.

They will review the latest set of accounts filed to determine the level of free reserves you hold as part of their financial due diligence. The widely recognised definition of free reserves is:

(total unrestricted funds – unrestricted fixed assets) / total unrestricted expenditure

If your organisation’s turnover and reserves meet these requirements at the point of application, but falls below them while waiting for your grant to be assessed, they'll still consider your application provided the difference between your new position and the requirement is not material (10%+).

They also ask that your organisation holds the following policies and keeps them regularly updated. Copies of these will need to be submitted as part of the application process:

• Safeguarding policy
• Whistleblowing policy
• Equal Opportunities policy

How much funding is available?

They’re awarding grants through this funding round from £50,000 to £249,999 over a period of up to three years.   

Your application can be for one, two or three years’ funding. For example, you could apply for £150,000 in total over three years, which would be £50,000 per year.   

What they fund

They are awarding funding to develop, expand and improve active travel options for disabled people. This may include: 

• Grant programmes for wheelchairs and mobility equipment.
• Loan schemes for wheelchairs and mobility equipment.
• Assessments.
• Maintenance.

What your grant can be used for 

Your grant can be used for: 

• Funding for schemes, programmes and initiatives that already exist, and provide best practice solutions, but need support to remain operational or scale up the service they provide to help more disabled people.
• Staff and volunteer training or costs.
• Full cost recovery grants which include indirect costs.
• Local or regional initiatives to increase awareness of wheelchair service provision.