Grantmaking Policy

The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust is a general grantmaking trust. Our registered charity number is 200198.

The objects of our charity, as set out in the trust deed, are the advancement of any charitable purpose as the Trustees, at their absolute discretion, think fit, by the provision of grants for such purposes and the provision of grants to benefit any charity. This enables us to make grants for a very wide range of charitable activities.

What we support

We only accept applications from UK registered charities (or organisations deemed exempt or excepted under Charity Commission guidance) and there is a particular focus on charities operating in the West Midlands, in particular, the Coventry and Warwickshire area. This reflects the wishes of the Trust’s Settlor. We do not fund individuals.

The policy of the Trustees is to support a wide range of charities across a broad spectrum. Although for disclosure purposes grants are analysed in separate categories, the Trustees are interested in funding initiatives which meet the online Eligibility Quiz regardless of the charitable area into which the grant falls.

The broad sector categories are:

  1. Arts and Museums
  2. Conservation and Protection
  3. Employment, Education and Training
  4. Homelessness and Housing
  5. Leisure, Recreation and Youth
  6. Medical (we do not fund Medical Research)
  7. Offenders
  8. Social Welfare

Grants are made for both capital and revenue purposes.

Some grants are one-off, some recurring and others spread over two or three years.

The Trustees do not typically fund projects outside the UK.

How we assess applications for a grant

The Trustees make decisions regarding awards in March, June, September and December of each year. It is their practice to require applicants to provide details of the organisation, the funding requirement and their latest report and accounts. Whenever it is considered necessary or advisable visits are made by Trustees in order to gain a better understanding of applicants’ requirements.

Grants are awarded entirely at the discretion of the Trustees and their decision is final.

Applications are received via an online application form and all applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application. Due to the volume involved we cannot provide feedback on unsuccessful applications.

Safeguarding is managed as outlined in our Safeguarding Policy.

Information gathered by our charity is collected and held in accordance with our Privacy and Cookie Notice.

Our standard terms and conditions

When making grants we ask donees to follow certain conditions and, by accepting a grant, donees are agreeing to these terms:

  1. Our grant may only be used for the purposes outlined in the donee’s application, the fullness and accuracy of which we relied upon in deciding to make it.
  2. Donees will meet, as a minimum, our expectations regarding safeguarding as outlined in our Safeguarding Policy.
  3. Donees will comply with all applicable laws and regulations in carrying out their activities and will not do, or omit to do, anything that might reasonably be expected to bring us as donors into disrepute.
  4. Donees will let us know right away if they become aware of any significant change during the life of the grant of which it is reasonable to expect that we would want to be aware as a responsible donor.
  5. Grants are conditional upon the receipt of satisfactory reports from donees. For a one-off grant a single end-of-grant report is required. For multi-year grants, donees must submit a report for each year of funding.

Re-applying for funding

We receive far more requests for funding than our funds can support and, to give as many potential donees as possible the opportunity to benefit from our support, Trustees require a gap of 2 years between grants and, where an application for funding has been unsuccessful, we request applicants delay reapplying for 13 months from the date they were notified by us that their application was unsuccessful.

Grant information available in the public domain

Each year we publish lists of the grants awarded. The lists are included in our Annual Reports and Accounts available on the Charity Commission Website. Each grant listed shows the total grant awarded. This may have been paid as a single one-off grant or split and paid over two or three years.