Allen Lane Foundation       

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Exclusions

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What we fund

These guidelines are intended to help potential applicants identify whether their work is a priority for the Foundation and what we need to see in an application.

The Foundation is a charitable Trust which makes grants in the UK.  It makes grants to voluntary not-for-profit organisations (which need not be registered charities, provided the work carried out is charitable) which are small (as its grants are small) and where the work benefits groups of people who are unpopular in UK society today. Please note that it does not make grants to individuals.

The Foundation receives about nine applications for every one that is successful. Please read these guidelines carefully and only apply if your work matches our priorities.  In particular please check the Exclusions and make sure they do not apply to your work.  If they do your application will not be successful.  If in doubt, ring the office or write or email us.

The Foundation wishes to fund work which  

• will make a lasting difference to people’s lives rather than simply alleviating the symptoms or current problems

• is aimed at reducing isolation, stigma and discrimination, and

  •  encourages or enables unpopular groups to share in the life of the whole community.

The Foundation is interested in funding work which benefits people in the following groups, or generalist work which includes significant numbers from more than one such group 

      • asylum-seekers and refugees (but not groups working with a single nationality)

                  • gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender people

                  • gypsies and travellers

                  • offenders and ex-offenders

                  • older people

                  • people from black and minority ethnic communities and migrant workers 

                  • people experiencing mental health problems

                  • people experiencing violence or abuse

If the beneficiaries of your work do not include a significant proportion of people from one or more of these groups it is very unlikely that your application will be successful.   

The Foundation will make grants for start-up, core or project costs. The grants are relatively small and are likely therefore to be appropriate for costs such as:

• Volunteers or participants expenses

• Venue hire

• Part-time or sessional staffing costs

• Work aimed at strengthening the organisation such as trustee or staff training

But these are only examples – there will be many other appropriate items which could be funded.

While recognising (and being willing to support) on-going, tried and tested projects, the Foundation is particularly interested in unusual, imaginative or pioneering projects which have perhaps not yet caught the public imagination.

Some examples of the kind of activities which might be suitable for funding follow and more can be found on the pages where our annual reports list all previous grants

• provision of advice or information
• advocacy
• befriending or mentoring
• social activities or drop-in centres
• practical work, such as gardening or recycling, which benefits both the provider and the recipient
• mediation or conflict resolution
• self-help groups
• work aimed at combating stigma or discrimination
• work developing practical alternatives to violence
• arts activities where the primary purpose is therapeutic or social
• strengthening the rights of particular groups and enabling their views and experiences to be heard by policy-makers
• research and education aimed at changing public attitudes or policy

 The grants are relatively modest. Single, one-off grants range from as little as £500 up to £15,000. Grants repeated for more than one year vary from about £500 per annum up to £5,000 per annum, for a maximum of three years.  

 To make sure that grants of this size have an impact the Foundation will not fund larger organisations. If an organisation works in a relatively local area such as a village, estate or small town to be eligible it will have an income of less than about £100,000. At the other end of the spectrum, an organisation which works across the whole of the UK will be eligible if it has an income of not more than about £250,000.

The Foundation will make single grants, or grants for two or three years. It is unlikely to make a second grant immediately after one has finished and if an application is refused, we ask applicants to wait a year before applying again.

 The Foundation makes grants for work all over the United Kingdom but not where the beneficiaries of the work all live in London.  Organisations which have their offices in London are eligible provided the people who benefit from their work are not only in London.