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Small Grants Programme

Small Grants Programme

The Small Grants Programme is currently CLOSED.

This is a rolling funding programme for one-off grants of up to £5,000.

There are 10 application windows throughout the year and each window will close when 45 applications have been received. Please see the Process and Key Dates tab below for more information.

Although you cannot prefill the online application form, you may prepare your application by downloading the offline version of the form and our Small Grants Budget Template.

Prepare for your application

Offline version of the form Download
Small Grants Budget Template Download

Eligibility Criteria

The Leathersellers’ Small Grants Programme 2023-24 will consider applications from charities and Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs) registered and operating in the UK. We will not consider applications from Community Interest Companies (CICs).

To apply, charities and CIOs must meet the following criteria:

  • Operate in a geographical area of deprivation in the UK. We recognise all relative measures of deprivation as tracked by the Indices of Deprivation or similar tools.
  • Deliver activities to meet an identified need for vulnerable members of the community
  • Have a planned expenditure of under £200,000 in 2023/24

We do not fund the following:

  • Medical research
  • Hospices
  • Capital restoration projects for the sole purpose of conservation/heritage
  • Services that charge participants for access, irrespective of a beneficiary’s ability to pay

Making a good application

We want to fund excellent organisations and people, where activities improve the lives of others.

We have designed our application form to only ask for what we need in order to gather a clear picture of your work. On reading your application, we should understand:

  • How you have identified that you are operating in an area of deprivation
  • What need you are aiming to address in your local community
  • What difference you make in people’s lives and how you do it
  • How you know you are making a difference (evidenced outcomes)

We are looking for organisations that:

  • Understand the needs of their local community
  • Are open and transparent about their work and finances
  • Work in partnership with others
  • Why do we ask for your Safeguarding Policy?

Your safeguarding policy tells us how your organisation keeps your beneficiaries, staff, and volunteers safe. We expect your approach and processes to be proportional and if you are providing 1 to 1 services or working with children/ vulnerable members of the community, we would expect your policy to be publicly available and to include:

  • appropriate, current legislation
  • clear steps on what to do if a risk is identified, with relevant leadership and trustee contact details
  • whistleblowing guidance
  • details of safer recruitment practices
  • signature and date, with a scheduled review date (ideally annually)

For further guidance, please see the NSPCC Safeguarding Assessment Tool and NSPCC’s guidance on writing safeguarding policies and practices

Process & key dates

Process

The Small Grants Committee will meet on ten occasions throughout the year, to support timely decisions. An application window will open a few weeks before each meeting and will close when 45 applications have been received.

Applications Open: Wednesday 2nd August 2023
Committee Meeting Date: Tuesday 12th September 2023

Applications Open: Monday 4th September 2023
Committee Meeting Date: Tuesday 10th October 2023

Applications Open: Monday 2nd October 2023
Committee Meeting Date: Thursday 9th November 2023

Applications Open: Monday 6th November 2023
Committee Meeting Date: Wednesday 6th December 2023

Winter Break Monday 18th December 2023 to Tuesday 2nd January 2024

Applications Open: Monday 4th December 2023
Committee Meeting Date: Wednesday 9th January 2024

Applications Open: Monday 2nd January 2024
Committee Meeting Date: Tuesday 13th February 2024

Applications Open: Monday 5th February 2024
Committee Meeting Date: Tuesday 12th March 2024

Easter Break  Monday 2nd April 2024 to Friday 12th April 2024

Applications Open: Monday 4th March 2024
Committee Meeting Date: Tuesday 16th April 2024

Applications Open: Monday 1st April 2024
Committee Meeting Date: Tuesday 14th May 2024

Applications Open: Monday 6th May 2024
Committee Meeting Date: Wednesday 12th June 2024

Please ensure you work on your form offline, using the offline version of our application form. If you have started an online application form and then find that we’ve reached our maximum applications, you will not be able to access this form again so please work online and copy answers over to ensure no answers are lost.

45 APPLICATIONS PER ROUND

Applying online

Applications can only be submitted via the online form, which will become available on the day the round opens and will close when we have reached maximum submissions.

An offline version of the form is available here and you can access our recommended budget template here.

We will view your accounts on the Charity Commission website. If your latest public accounts are over one year old, please upload a copy of your draft accounts with your online application.

You will receive a notification of your submission by email (please check spam/ junk folders for email from charityapp@leathersellers.co.uk), and we will inform you of the outcome of your application within one month.

FAQs

We fund charities (CIO’s) who are registered with the Charity Commission. We recognise the different regulation and financial reporting the different structures are subject to, but our current focus is on supporting charities rather than social enterprises (which the CIC structure is designed to enable).

No, we support registered charities working within and for the benefit of individuals and communities across the UK.

If you are awarded a grant, we will send you a grant offer email detailing the terms and conditions of the grant and asking you to complete an acceptance form. Once you have completed the form, we will process the payment. The date the payment is sent signals the start of your grant.

We do not expect any reports from recipients of small grants.

If you have received a small grant from the Leathersellers’ previously, you must wait 12 months from the offer date before you may reapply at this time. This also applies to rejection dates and any subsequent applications.

Unfortunately, as we only have a small Grants team at the Leathersellers it is not possible currently for us to provide feedback to all applicants.

We can only support charities that follow excellent safeguarding practices, as demonstrated in the first instance by an accessible policy and clear processes. For further information, please visit the gov.uk website or read the NSPCC’s guidance on writing safeguarding policies and practices.