The Pilgrim Trust
Overview
Focus Areas
- Supporting young women with their mental health by improving their access to high quality, gender and age informed services.
- Preserving and conserving significant historic buildings, structures, objects, works of art, collections and records.
- Supporting research, advocacy and development work in our areas of interest and where they might bring about systemic change, drive forward policy and practice or strengthen the sector.
Who they fund?
- UK registered charities
- Organisations with exempt charitable status
- Recognised public bodies
Projects must:
- Be UK based
- Not be complete (they don’t provide retrospective grants against contracts already let or work completed)
Young Women in Mind Programme (GrantTracker link)
Grants support organisations aiming to improve the mental health of women aged 16-25, by increasing their access to high quality, age and gender specific mental health services.
Research, Advocacy and Development
This fund allows them to make strategic interventions in their areas of interest, where they may bring about systemic change, drive forward policy and practice, or strengthen the sector.
They support projects, ideas and organisations that do research, advocacy and development work in young women’s mental health, preservation and conservation of historic buildings and collections, and increasing access to the countryside.
They have a small pot of funding set aside for this and they aim to be more conversational rather than transactional in their approach. Normally they build partnerships and then invite applications for initiatives they are interested in supporting.
Please email Sue, their Director, if you would like to talk through a proposal.
Preservation and Conservation
They support the preservation, conservation and repair of significant historic buildings, structures and architectural features. They also support the conservation of works of art, objects, records and collections. They work with a number of strategic partners across preservation and conservation to increase the reach and impact of their funding.
Historic buildings and structures
They help fund the preservation and repair of historic buildings, structures and architectural features. They give special consideration to those helping find sustainable solutions for the conservation and re-use of historic buildings – especially those at risk and of outstanding importance.
- Grant size: Generally, £1,000 to £30,000. Sometimes larger sums are considered.
- What funding covers: Project costs, staff costs, fees, internships, initial exploratory work and capital costs. In exceptional cases, salary costs and other support costs.
- Small grants: Grants for £5,000 or less are considered on a rolling basis between meetings. You can expect a response within 4 weeks once you have submitted a Stage two application.
- Deadlines: You may apply at any time. Stage one applications are considered on a rolling basis. Stage two applications above £5,000 are considered quarterly at their Board meetings in March, June, September, November. Cut off dates in 2025 are 10 January, 18 April, 1 August, 3 October.
- Success rate: In 2024, 40% of Stage one applications and 72% of Stage two applications were successful. 77% of successful applicants were first time applicants to the Trust. Approx. 12 grants are awarded at each Trustee meeting.
Types of Projects They Support
They look at all projects holistically and explore where a grant will have most impact and help organisations to unlock other sources of funding.
They are often a ‘stepping stone’ funder, supporting early stages of a project where support is needed to develop a scheme. This might include initial exploratory and project development work, professional surveys as well as capital works.
Typically, they fund smaller charities who have less access to resources.
They see it as vital that the architects and building contractors you use are experienced in the repair of historic buildings. All their projects champion best practice in preservation, repair and conservation work.
You can apply if you are:
- A UK registered charity
- An organisation with exempt charitable status
- A recognised public body
- A Community Benefit Society*
- A Community Interest Company (CIC) limited by guarantee*
Your work or project must:
- Be UK based
- Not be complete (we don’t provide retrospective grants)
Places of worship
They support the preventative maintenance and repair of historic places of worship and the conservation of their historic interiors and churchyard structures across the UK. Places of worship are a vital and much-loved part of the UK’s heritage as well as often being important centres of the local community. Many of these buildings, interiors and structures can be challenging to maintain. Regular maintenance can reduce the need for major capital repairs and save more of the original historic fabric.
This work is primarily achieved through their partnership with the National Churches Trust and the Church Buildings Council (part of the Church of England). Therefore, they do not accept applications for fabric repairs from churches, chapels and meeting houses used by Christian denominations. They also do not accept applications for the conservation of historic interiors and historic objects from Anglican churches.
- GRANTS FOR CHURCH BUILDINGS
They work with the National Churches Trust (NCT) to support the repair and maintenance of historic churches, chapels and meeting houses used by Christian denominations. They offer direct grants to other denominations not covered by the NCT grant programmes.
They don’t fund:
- Re-ordering or projects to develop new facilities
- Fabric repairs in cathedrals
Apply for a NCT grant.
- GRANTS FOR CHURCH INTERIORS AND HISTORIC OBJECTS
There are few funding sources for the conservation of church interiors and historic objects. Small grants can help improve their condition and give the people of the parish confidence in their fundraising skills. They want to encourage parishes to use skilled and experienced conservators.
They work with the Church Buildings Council (part of the Church of England) to fund the ChurchCare grant programme. ChurchCare grants are open to Anglican churches and help conserve church interiors and churchyard structures. For non-Anglican denominations, you should apply to them direct.
Please note: they do not fund on-going, major fabric repairs in cathedrals. However, they do consider particular discrete projects, for example, the conservation of a particularly significant monument
Grants (both direct and through the ChurchCare) are available towards the conservation of various objects and materials. Find out more and apply for a ChurchCare grant.
- Bells
- Books and manuscripts
- Clocks
- Decorative plasterwork
- Metalwork and church plate
- Monuments
- Organs
- Paintings on canvas and wood
- Stained glass
- Textiles
- Timberwork
- Wall paintings
- Historic structures in churchyards
These grants also help with the commissioning of conservation reports, including environmental and technical investigations.
Apply for a ChurchCare grant.
Other schemes
- They currently support the care and conservation of collections in small and medium museums through their funding of the Association of Independent Museums (AIM) and the conservation of manuscripts through their support of the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust (NMCT).
- The Archives Revealed programme is a partnership between The National Archives, the Pilgrim Trust and the Wolfson Foundation. It is the only funding stream in the UK dedicated to cataloguing and unlocking archives. The goal of the Programme is to ensure that significant archive collections, representing the lives and perspective of all people across the UK, are made accessible to the public for research and enjoyment.