WCIT Grants

Overview

The WCIT Charity funds registered charities and organisations with a formal not-for-profit constitution such as a community interest company.

They are more likely to fund the development and delivery of innovative new services, solutions, training, apps, analytics, AI, robotics, or custom-made accessibility features/hardware; projects where they are the main or sole funder; projects where they are sole funder of the tech component of a larger project; and organisations that could benefit from their pro bono support. 

Ideally, projects need to demonstrate an innovative use of technology, be scalable for wider replication, and be sustainable over time. 

As a tech charity, all projects they fund must make use of information technology and must relate to one or more of their priority areas: - 

• Education

  • They receive many requests for education-related projects, especially STEM training for younger children and girls. They are most likely to fund innovative approaches to improving learning outcomes or improving digital literacy, or projects that are developing technology-based educational tools.

• Inclusion 

  • Digital inclusion and accessibility remain big challenges, and they welcome applications designed to address this. However, they receive a very high volume of requests for community digital inclusion projects so they would encourage you to think about how a relatively small grant from them could have the biggest impact on your beneficiaries, and what would make your project stand head and shoulders above any others.
  • They will be most interested in projects which demonstrate the potential for a high Social Return on Investment. This guide to valuing digital inclusion from Just Economics/BT could help you think about some of the potential outcomes: which ones would be applicable to your beneficiaries and how might you measure them?
  • They will also look favourably on organisations that are part of the Good Things Foundation’s National Digital Inclusion Network.

• Tech for charities

  • This focus area is to encourage charities to pilot new technologies that will create efficiencies in the organisation, improve the lives of beneficiaries, or be scalable to the wider Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector. It does not cover funding for off-the-shelf hardware, software, networking or telephony costs, or the creation or hosting of websites, unless they are for the explicit use of beneficiaries. 

• Public understanding of technology

  • This is a small area of focus for the WCIT Charity and is covered by their grant to Gresham College for its Professor of IT who delivers free lectures to the public.

Eligibility

You are eligible if you are 

• a registered charity or organisation with a formal not-for-profit constitution such as a community interest company;
• CICs limited by shares may also apply, although please note the guidance on page five about Persons with Significant Control. They do not fund individuals or private companies.

New organisations

They accept applications from organisations over a year old, as long as they are legally constituted and can provide them with the required documents. 

If a new organisation cannot provide them with their most recent audited or independently examined accounts, then an account overview (with clear details of income and expenditure) will be sufficient.

Funding Level & Notes

As a small funder, grants are usually only for projects up to £15,000.

In a minority of projects, where funding is over £15,000, and once their members have established a working relationship with the organisation concerned, the WCIT Charity will consider requests for funding to support the implementation of the project. 

Funding applications to the WCIT Charity for a small fraction towards the cost of a large project (e.g. £15,000 toward an £80,000 initiative) are unlikely to be successful. They will, however, consider risk-sharing with other funders.

Documents

Applicants for grants under £5,000 are requested to provide: 

• A document proving charitable status (which must relate directly to the applicant organisation)
• Most recent audited or independently examined accounts.
• A copy of your current safeguarding policy if the proposed project works with children and vulnerable adults. This should include, where relevant, digital safeguarding.
• For CICs and Companies Limited by Guarantee: a copy of your Person with Significant Control (PSC) Register.

Applicants for all grants over £5,000 and less than £15,000 are requested to provide:

• Most recent audited or independently examined accounts.
• Memorandum and Articles of Association/Constitution.
• A copy of your current safeguarding policy if the proposed project works with children and vulnerable adults. This should include, where relevant, digital safeguarding.
• Contact details of an external referee who can provide a reference on the charity's effective project or service delivery. The contact must be external to the organisation and be happy to be named. They should not be related to any applicant staff or volunteer.
• For CICs and Companies Limited by Guarantee: a copy of your Person with Significant Control (PSC) Register. 

Applicants for all grants over £15,000 are requested to provide*: 

• Most recent Audited or Independently Examined Accounts.
• Memorandum and Articles of Association/Constitution.
• A copy of your current safeguarding policy if the proposed project works with children and vulnerable adults. This should include, where relevant, digital safeguarding.
• Most recent Annual Report or minutes of AGM. If the organisation is new, the minutes from the meeting when the Constitution was formally adopted are acceptable.
• Contact details of two external referees who can provide a reference on the charity's effective project or service delivery. The contacts must be external to the organisation and be happy to be named. They should not be related to any applicant staff or volunteer.
• For CICs and Companies Limited by Guarantee: a copy of your Person with Significant Control (PSC) Register.

*Please note that grants over £15,000 are only awarded in extraordinary circumstances.

Status/success rate

• Remaining funds for 2025 – approximately £19,000
• Applications in the last quarter – 142
• Typical number of grants made per quarter – two