Steel Charitable Trust: United Kingdom Under 26 Fund
Overview
The Steel Charitable Trust runs two grant-making programmes:
- UNITED KINGDOM Under-26 Fund, a rolling programme to which applications are welcome all year with four cut-off dates which feed into quarterly Trustee meetings, at which grant decisions are made; and
- Luton Matters, a specific and limited programme designed to bring benefits to Luton, initial interest for which is expressed between July and October; this may lead to an invitation to apply, starting a process that could lead to an award decision the following March.
UNITED KINGDOM Under-26 Fund
What is this fund trying to achieve?
This fund aims to improve outcomes for children and young people in the UK (regardless of their nationality, culture or ethnic origin) who are wholly or mainly under 26 years of age. The overarching focus is on creating educational and/or access opportunities for young people in circumstances, groups or locations that face economic challenges or social marginalisation that may lead to significant disadvantages in later life.
They say ‘mainly’ under the age of 26 because they do not want to discourage what could be a strong application from, for example, an organisation supporting young people in the age range 21-26. However, it would be disingenuous to apply if the target audience was 25-30-year-olds.
What type of work might be funded?
All sorts of work could be funded through this programme, as long as the beneficiaries are in the UK and are wholly, or mainly, under the age of 26.
The Trust is not resourced to offer individual advice to applicants, or to hold meetings or calls, ahead of making an application.
What type of funding is available?
All grants awarded will be for restricted funding. However, that does not preclude specifically stated running or capital costs, such as contributions to a salary for a stated role, detailed IT upgrades or a building renovation. New project costs or contributions towards on-going projects or programmes are also permitted.
Grants awarded could be one-off or multi-year.
Who may apply and what are the eligibility criteria?
To apply, you must…
- be a UK-registered charity or an Exempt Charity as defined in the Charities Act 2011 or its equivalents in Scotland and Northern Ireland
- be seeking funding towards work that will be delivered in any part of the United Kingdom, except Luton
- have a minimum income of £50k in the previous financial yeari
- be able to produce at least one full year of accounts, that confirms the required income threshold
- be seeking a grant of a minimum of £10k
Your organisation may have more than one structure, i.e. be a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. As long as it is a registered charity, it is eligible. CIOs are registered charities.
They do not accept applications from individuals, political parties, recently-registered charities, other charitable/not-for-profit organisations with different structures.
What are the likely grant sizes?
Generally, £10k is the minimum grant size. Most one-off grants fall in the range £10k-£25k, usually made as a single payment. Where multi-year awards are made, a report is required before the release of subsequent instalments.
A list of recent grants made can be found here.