Large Grants

Large Grants is one of our four funding offers for registered charities who work to address poverty and trauma in Scotland. For more details of the kind of work we fund, take a look at Who and what we fund.

Overview

• For registered charities with an annual income* of between £100,000 and £2 million
• Unrestricted or restricted* revenue funding of between £15,000 and £50,000 per year, for up to five years
• Can include the costs of equipment to support your work
• We will aim to give you a decision within 8 to 12 weeks. We're currently receiving increased numbers of applications across Our Funds however. The Team is continuing to work hard to respond to requests and assess new applications within our published deadlines, but if there are any changes to this we'll notify applicants on an individual basis.

Please note that unless the activities outlined in your application are purposely designed to address those issues described within one or more of our four Primary Themes, we are unable to consider your request for a Large Grant.  Details of our Themes are as follows:

Financial Security

Emotional Wellbeing and Relationships

Education Pathways

Work Pathways

In some circumstances, where applicants feel that their work addresses the broader aims of one or more of our Primary Themes, we may be able to consider an application for a Small Grant. However, this type of funding was developed to support smaller organisations with annual income of up to £100,000 and these are therefore the groups which we will prioritise under Small Grants. This is because we wish to ensure that the application process and level of any funding awarded is proportionate to the size of the applicant organisation. If you have any queries regarding this, please email us at the following address funding@therobertsontrust.org.uk

Organisations of this size may also apply for a Community Vehicle Grant.

*Definitions:

Annual Income: This is based on the money your organisation received in the last financial year, as shown in your most recent annual accounts. If you are a new organisation, which has not yet produced accounts, you can base this on the income you expect to bring in in the year ahead. As a general rule, we will only accept applications for Large Grants from charities whose annual income is between £100K and £2M. There are some cases where we will make exceptions, for example, if your income last year was less than £100K but you are growing your activities and projecting increased costs; or if your income was over £2M due to one-off funding for a capital project, or additional services delivered to support your community during the pandemic.  If you would like to be considered for a Large Grant but you’re still not sure if it’s right for your charity, please call us on 0141 353 4321 to discuss.

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 is purposely designed to addresses an issue described within 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 or identified and agreed by us as being aligned to an issue described within one or more of our four Primary Themes.

Guidance highlights – you’ll need:

• At least three unconnected Trustees on your charity’s Board
• Recent independently examined or audited annual accounts
• A policy on equality and diversity, and a safeguarding policy (if applicable)
• A full job description if your request is for funding towards a specific salary cost.