Volant Charitable Trust
Overview
The Trustees wish to record basic guidelines which will be applied by them when determining the award of grants from the Trust and have agreed that the following outline criteria will be applied. The Trustees do however wish to record that the awarding of grants is entirely within their discretion and accordingly, if considered appropriate, awards may be made which do not fall precisely within these guidelines.
The Trust has two broad areas of funding:
- Research into the causes, treatment and possible cures of Multiple Sclerosis.
J K Rowling is supporting major research into neuroregeneration and Multiple Sclerosis at the University of Edinburgh. The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic is being set up in Edinburgh with the substantial donation J K Rowling made in 2010. The Trust is therefore not considering MS related applications for the foreseeable future.
- Charities and projects, whether national or community-based, at home or abroad, that alleviate social deprivation, with a particular emphasis on women's and children's issues.
At present the Trustees consider the funding of major disaster appeals and this is the focus of the Trust's International support; therefore, applications for other projects overseas are not being considered for the foreseeable future.
The guidelines are as follows:
- The Trustees principal objective is to support charitable organisations whose purpose is to alleviate poverty and social deprivation with particular emphasis on children's and women's issues. All charities should be registered with the relevant national charity commission or equivalent body.
- The Trustees are prepared to support a charity by way of regular annual payments but only in exceptional circumstances would grants exceed three years. In addition, even if the activities of a charity appear to fall within the guidelines this does not automatically mean that it will receive a grant. All grants are at the discretion of the Trustees.
- The Trustees will as and when appropriate, support disaster appeals but will not support applications from individuals who are seeking assistance, for a specific project or charitable work which that individual may be carrying out, or to relieve a need due to illness or similar circumstances.