Please read "Who Can Apply" first and make sure that you meet our criteria before emailing in your application.  Most importantly it must be for a specific project that benefits the residents one or all of these areas: Hertfordshire,  Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Greater Manchester that you are applying from a charity.

 

We can only correspond directly with the charity and not with third parties.  Please email from your charity's email address.  This is for data protection and to protect your charity.  We will check your contact details on The Charity Commission website.  

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We do not have an application form.  

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Please make sure (as a minimum) you quote:

 

• your Charity Number

• your role in the organisation

• that you are authorised by the organisation to submit the application

• what new and specific project you would like funding for (we do not give core funding or pay for any staff costs or support ongoing activities). Please do NOT include any case studies; we can't verify them so they serve no purpose and after reading requests for decades we are aware of the problems.  Tell us how we can help as clearly as you can.  We are looking at giving a one off lump sum that will make a real difference to your organisation in a meaningful way.  We are not looking at your day to day running costs.    

• any time constraints on your project (if we can not award you a grant at the current meeting  but we feel it has real merit we may opt to hold over your application to the next meeting if it is not time sensitive)

• how much you are looking for from us with a detailed break down including proper quotes (not estimates)

• how much you have raised so far (if any)

• the total cost of this specific project

• who you are looking to help with your project (must be residents of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire or Greater Manchester).  

• successful applications are now paid via BACS so we need to know your charity's BACS details with your application.  Please check that this is exactly as shown on your charity's bank account.  We need to check these details before the meeting so please include them with your application.   

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Please note that (other than exceptional circumstances) we only provide funding for capital projects.  To be clear, a capital project is the purchase of a physical asset that has a useful life of one or year of more.  

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​It really helps if you can make this as clear as possible.  Please do not ask us for "however much you can" or "as much as possible".  Give us a figure or break it down into separate elements we could choose to fund.  Please also attach any supporting documents and if your latest reports and accounts are not on The Charity Commission Website either give us a link to where we can find them or attach them if we can't access them online.  It also helps if you give us a link to your website and social media if you have them.

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Usually less than half the applications we receive will result in a grant and often the grant will be for less than the full amount applied for.  You need to make your case that your application is particularly worthy of support.  It helps to show that your staff are fully qualified and competent.  It also helps to provide letters of support from prominent organisations your charity has links with who can vouch for the work that you do and specifically the project you wish to undertake.   These should come from the organisation itself.  Please do not include letters of support from private individuals.  We can't verify them and we can't store them due to the data protection implications.  If you submit an application with any details relating to a private individual we will have to reject it and ask you to resubmit it with the information removed which wastes everyone's time.

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Applications are usually presented to the trustees in the order in which they are received.  It is in your interest to get your application in at the earliest opportunity as it allows more time to check that you have given us all the information you need to and if we have too many applications for the meeting you are more likely to have your application held over to the following meeting if it arrived in the final days before the deadline.  We will always do our best to be fair and impartial but leaving your application to the final moment is not in the best interest of your charity.

 

We are run by volunteers and a part-time  administrator all working from home so to keep costs down we do not have a phone number.  Mr Apthorp is involved in decisions on all applications but he is in his late eighties now, and although he is kept fully informed, he has retired and is not involved in the day-today running of the charity.  Please respect that and do not attempt to contact him directly.  All information will be passed on to him but we respectfully ask you to email us. 

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Please click on the button below to email us:

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