Funding

Find out more about the funding we offer and browse our available Funds.

We offer both revenue and capital funding for registered charities and constituted community groups that help people and communities in Scotland who are living with poverty and trauma.

For more details of the kind of work we fund, take a look at Who and what we fund.

Our offices will be closed from Friday, 20th December to 3rd January 2024. During this time, the Giving Team will not be able to respond to any calls or emails. When we re-open the team will work hard to reply to any requests and assess new applications to Our Funds within our published deadlines. If there are any changes to this, we'll notify individual applicants. Wishing you all a happy and healthy festive period.

Wee Grants

  • For constituted community groups and charities in Scotland with an annual income of less than £30,000.
  • Funding of up to £5,000 for one year only.
  • Unrestricted; can cover revenue or capital costs.

Transport Grants

  • For registered charities working in Scotland, with an annual income of £30,000 to £2 million, that support people who are experiencing (or are at high risk of experiencing) poverty and trauma.
  • Funding of between £5,000 and £20,000 per year, for 1-3 years, to contribute towards the costs of transport to support your work.
  • If you are already in receipt of a Small or Large Grant from us, you can still apply for a separate Transport Grant. However, we will take the fact that you already hold funding from us into account. In these cases, we are likely only to award a one-year Transport grant or, if we award you a 3-year grant, we are likely to cap this at a maximum of £20K in total.

Small Grants

  • For registered charities with an annual income of between £30,000 and £200,000.
  • Revenue funding of between £5,000 and £20,000 per year, for up to five years.
  • Unrestricted or restricted funding.
  • Can include the costs of equipment to support your work.

Large Grants

  • For registered charities with an annual income of over £200,000 and up to £2 million.
  • Revenue funding of between £20,000 and £50,000 per year, for up to five years.
  • Unrestricted or restricted funding.
  • Can include the costs of equipment to support your work.

Nurturing Relationships

  • For registered charities working in Scotland, with an annual income of over £30,000 and up to £2 million, who are working to support nurturing relationships within families and communities, to help break the cycle between persistent poverty and intergenerational trauma, and support recovery.
  • Unrestricted or restricted funding.
  • Open to applications from 27 November 2024, closing at noon on 24 January 2025.

Programme Awards

Programme Awards are aimed at delivering big change that lasts on tackling poverty and trauma in Scotland

  • Available to organisations with an annual income of more than £100,000. Organisations do not need to be based in Scotland but the proposed work does need to aim to have an impact in Scotland.
  • Supports work to deliver big change that lasts on tackling poverty and trauma in Scotland.
  • Project-restricted revenue funding for up to three years, usually between £20K and £500K in total.
  • Participation with experts by experience on poverty and trauma in the design and delivery of Programme Awards will be an important criterion in assessing applications.

Unlike our rolling responsive funds, which run all-year round, we host time-limited open calls for our Programme Awards which will publicly invite applications around a particular focus. Meanwhile, through our discovery and relationship building work across the Trust, we also have the ability to co-develop potential projects with a strong likelihood of achieving big change that lasts.

We do not currently have any Programme Award open calls live.

To be informed of future opportunities, please sign up to our mailing list.

Community Building Grants - Closed

We have decided to close ‘Community Buildings’ as a type of funding.

As previously highlighted, we are experiencing a high volume of applications across all Funds.

It is important that we prioritise those projects and activities which focus on improving outcomes for those people most adversely affected by poverty and/or trauma. The level of funding we are able to contribute towards individual capital projects is highly restricted and at this time we feel it would be more beneficial to provide revenue funding for work which is clearly aligned to our strategic themes.

We understand that some organisations have already completed an application for funding towards a Community Building and will of course ensure that we fully assess these requests in line with our published guidance.  Please be aware, however, that we will always consider the extent to which these, or applications for any other type of activities, are preventing or mitigating the effects of poverty and/or trauma, as part of our review process. 

This fund closed to new applications on 30th November 2021.

Partners in Change - Closed

The Partners in Change programme is currently closed and will not be reopening to applications again in the same format.

Our offering for larger organisations is being developed through our Programme Awards, which are to support work that aims to deliver big change that lasts on poverty and trauma in Scotland, please see here for more information.  

Our programme awards will align to our four themed areas:

There are currently no open calls for our Programme Awards. To be informed of future funding opportunities, please sign up to our mailing list.

*Definitions:
Revenue funding is used to cover the costs of providing day-to-day services. We can provide revenue funding in two ways:

Unrestricted funding: can be spent on annual running costs of your organisation, such as salaries, heating, lighting, administration, consumables and small items of equipment. We particularly welcome applications for unrestricted funding where the work of your organisation addresses one or more of our four Primary Themes. We can however consider the costs of projects and specific salaries or activities if this will better meet your needs.  

Restricted funding: can only be used for a specific project, activity or designated purpose, as applied for or identified and agreed by us.