The Rhododendron Trust

Open or will open again Addiction and substance misuse Aged 60+ Arts, culture and heritage Children (0-12) Communities Community and neighbourhood development Dependants and carers environment Health, wellbeing and sport Housing and homelessness Human rights and equality Offenders and ex-offenders Overseas aid and development People with disabilities Social welfare and poverty World issues Africa Antrim & Newtownabbey Ards & North Down Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Asia and Middle East Belfast City Causeway Coast and Glens Derry City and Strabane England Fermanagh and Omagh Great Britain International Lisburn and Castlereagh Mid and East Antrim Mid Ulster Newry, Mourne and Down Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Micro (up to £1,000)

Track grant Notes

Overview

The Rhododendron Trust is a small family Charitable Trust (registration number 267192) which makes grants of between £1000 and £2000 to charities registered in the UK which support humanitarian welfare projects in the developing world and the UK; it also supports some cultural and wildlife projects.

In 2023-24 donations totalling £71,500 were made to 62 charities.

Grants Policy

In recent years the trust has received hundreds of applications each year, so it has to be very selective in deciding which charities to support. The general aim is to select charities which will make good use of a donation from the trust, i.e. where the charity’s goals align with the trust’s aims and where the charity is effective in achieving its goals. An important further consideration is that a donation from the trust should make a significant contribution to the charity’s work – which leads the trust to favour smaller charities over charities which already have a large income.

The Trust prefers to support Charities which benefit people affected by more than just poverty, for example people disadvantaged by disability, age, gender or ethnic status, or by the poor medical, welfare or educational infrastructure in their country. Thus Charities which provide medical aid in countries with very few doctors (such as Merlin or The Impact Foundation) or which benefit street children or prevent child labour or child soldiers (such as ChildHope and Children in Crisis), or which provide education (such as Book Aid), or legal protection (such as Womankind Worldwide). We are interested in welfare projects which also help sustain the environment.

The best guide to the types of charity which the trust supports is provided by the lists of charities which have been supported recently (see List of most recent grants).

Developing world charities

Children and Education
Development
Disability
Medical
Women and Justice
Nature

UK Charities

Carers and Breaks
Disability and Mental Health
Deprivation
Prisoners and Refugees
Arts

Charities which have received a donation are asked to provide a report at the end of the year indicating how the donation has been used and what it might do with a further donation. But there can be no guarantee of future donations; this depends on the Trust’s income and on the applications received for the following year.

Arts and Nature

Their arts funding tends not to vary very much as they tend here to work through large organisations such as the National Churches Trust and Fauna and Flora International. However they are open to proposals for small theatre and music projects, and to proposals for the protection of cultural and natural heritage. They are interested in projects which help sustain the environment.