Small Grants programme 2025
The Haberdashers' Benevolent Foundation's Small Grants Programme will be open for applications from UK Registered Charities and Community Interest Companies from Monday 6 January 2025.
The Programme is intended for small organisations for whom a grant of up to £5,000 would make a significant contribution to their work. The Small Grants programme 2025 has a total fund of £100,000.
This is an annual programme. The grant term is 12 months and your charity will be asked to feed back on the work at the end of the grant term. Applications can be made for core, unrestricted or project costs.
There is a two-stage application process. Charities who have previously been awarded a grant from the Small Grants programme 2024 are eligible to apply in 2025. New applicants are equally welcomed.
2024 programme
In 2024 104 charitable organisations went through Stage 1 of the application process. 50 full applications were received, and 19 small grants were awarded. This represents a success rate of 38%.
Last year 10 of the successful organisations had an annual income of £250,000 or less. 6 had an income of £500,000 of less, and the remaining 3 had an income of just over £500,000.
Three of the 19 awards were made to CICs.
Eligibility Criteria
Grants of up to £5,000 are available for charities/CICs whose work meets one or more of the Focus Areas and whose work benefits those within any of the geographic areas outlined below. Your organisation must have a website.
The charity’s work must provide inclusive solutions to the challenges faced by communities in the boroughs/geographical areas within which we work. Programmes must be open access and meeting the needs of all sectors within that community. Typically the work of successful charities complements the work of Haberdasher schools and/or churches within their communities/boroughs.
Charities with an income of c£500,000 or less are welcome to apply for the Small Grants’ programme. Applications from charities with an income of less than £250,000 are actively encouraged.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about the application form or wish to discuss the application process. We would be very happy to hear from you.
Focus Area eligibility requirements:
- Early Years (0-5 year olds)
- Young people who experience disadvantage (social mobility)
- Young people with experience of the custody system
- Young people who experience homelessness
Geographic Location eligibility requirements:
· The London Borough of Bexley
· The London Borough of Hackney
· The London Borough of Lewisham
· The London Borough of Southwark
· The Borough of Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire
· The Forest of Dean District
· The town of Chertsey in Surrey
· The village of Albrighton, Shropshire (and surrounding areas)
· The town of Wigston, Leicestershire (and surrounding areas)
· The village of Bunbury, Cheshire (and surrounding areas)
All applications must meet the eligibility requirements relating to both the Focus Areas and geographic locations above. National charities are not eligible. Charities working with children/young people who experience disadvantage in areas other than social mobility are not eligible, e.g. physical disabilities, additional educational needs.
In general Trustees only consider a CIC if it has at least three active officers.
If you have received funding before you may apply again, but Trustees tend to only fund for three consecutive years.
HOW TO APPLY FOR A SMALL GRANT:
This is a two-step process.
- Email grants@haberdashers.co.uk to request an application form (putting Small Grants Programme in the subject heading). Please include:
- A link to your entry on the Charities Commission or Companies House website
- The Focus Area your charity address
- The geography your charity works within
- Your charity’s website
If the work of your charity does not align with all of the requirements above, you will not be eligible to submit an application.
- If you are eligible to receive an application form this must be completed by the deadline of Friday 14 March 2025. You must include a link to your latest annual accounts on the Charities Commission website or attach them if you have more recent ones. Your email should be sent to grants@haberdashers.co.uk
Applications close at 5pm on Friday 14 March 2025.
No applications will be accepted after this time and date. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
You will be notified by email about the outcome of your application on or by Friday 25 April 2025.
The Haberdashers’ Company has signed up as an Open & Trusting funder under the IVAR commitments. Please contact us with any questions or queries, and we will be happy to do our best to answer them: grants@haberdashers.co.uk
Funding transparency and 360Giving
The Haberdashers's Company publishes its annual grant giving data with 360Giving. This service helps grantmakers and donors improve their charitable giving. Using the 360Giving data requirements, please find an PDF spreadsheet on the grants we awarded in a given year below:
This data is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This means the data is freely accessible to anyone to be used and shared as they wish; with the data being attributed to the Haberdashers' Foundation and that any changes made are indicated publically.
