Apply for Funding
General Eligibility
- The Trust only provides funding to registered charities and other non-profit organisations, including state schools. It does not provide funding to individuals.
- The Trust only supports projects of benefit to the South West region of the UK and chooses to limit this support to Devon, Cornwall and part of Somerset (TA postcode area only) due to the locations of the original Normans Stores. It particularly prioritises support to Exeter and East Devon.
- Due to the wishes of its founders, the Trust will not support any organisation that uses live animals for experimentation or research purposes, regardless of the project requesting funding.
- The Trust will not provide funding towards the maintenance or repair of religious buildings, nor to any projects which are religious in nature. Faith organisations and churches may apply for their community projects/community facilities so long as these are accessible to the wider community and not just for those of a particular faith.
We use an online application form which enables applicants to apply and attach supporting documents online, without the need to post anything to the Trust. The link to the online form is provided below, please read all the following information first.
How the Trust considers applications for funding
A Sub-Committee meets every 2 months approximately and considers the majority of applications. Please see our News page for the date of the next Sub Committee meeting and the deadline for receipt of applications. The deadline date and time are strictly observed as we are increasingly receiving a large number of applications right at on the deadline, all of which need to be processed within a short time period.
In order to be fair to all applicants, the Trustees will only consider one application per organisation per financial year unless there are exceptional circumstances, and this is the case for both successful and unsuccessful applications. If you decide to withdraw your application, you can re-apply at any time. The Trust’s financial year runs from 1st April to 31st March. Please contact the Trust if you are unsure about when you can re-apply. If mentioned in your grant offer e-mail, you must complete your monitoring report before applying again to the Trust.
The majority of grants awarded by the Trust are between £1,000 and £5,000. Trustees may only be able to offer partial support due to budget constraints so please apply to other funders for your project in addition to us wherever possible.
*NEW* – The Trust is happy to consider core/running costs but is unable to fund these on an ongoing basis. This means that if you come back to us the following year with the same request for these costs, we are very unlikely to be able to support the request. Trustees prefer to support specific projects, contributions towards capital works, equipment purchases etc wherever possible.
See our Facts & Figures page for more information on the Trust’s funding.
Grant Payments
Please ensure you supply your proof of bank details when you submit your application as we will not be able to transfer any funds without it and consideration of your request may be delayed to a later meeting.
All grant payments will be made via BACS electronic payment method unless there are exceptional circumstances (you will need to get in contact with us to discuss further). Funds can only be transferred to the applicant organisation’s bank account and NOT to an individual’s personal account. Applicants will have to upload official proof of their organisation’s bank account details showing the bank name/logo, account name, account number and sort-code as part of the online application submission. Please ensure these details are clearly legible – Co-operative Bank statements in particular can be very difficult to read if not scanned/photographed clearly. Bank account numbers must be 8 digits in length.
This proof should be a copy of either:
- a paying-in slip
- a recent bank statement
- a cancelled cheque
- a screenshot from an online banking website or app, providing it shows all the necessary information as mentioned above.
This is an anti-fraud measure and we can only accept proof of bank details in these formats. Bank details written on an applicant organisation’s compliment slip or headed paper are NOT acceptable.
If the applicant is a local state school and has its banking services via Devon County Council, please confirm the DCC bank details that you use and also the school reference number so that we can ensure the funds quickly get to the school.
How to Apply
Please use our online form via the link below. Receipt of online applications will be auto-acknowledged immediately by our system and you’ll receive separate e-mail confirmation that the application has been accepted for consideration within a few days or weeks, depending on when you apply during our meeting cycle. This e-mail will confirm which meeting the application will be considered at and contain a 5-digit reference number which you should use for all future correspondence with the Trust regarding your application.
All communications will be electronic so please provide an e-mail address on the application form that you check regularly. We will inform applicants of the outcome of their application by e-mail within a day or two of the meeting date. It is possible that such e-mails may enter spam or junk e-mail folders so please do check these before contacting us.
The Trust would like to see your organisation’s most recent accounts when considering your application. If your organisation is a Registered Charity and your latest accounts are available on the Charity Commission’s web site, you do not need to upload them with your application. If you are applying on behalf of a Community Interest Company or other voluntary or non-profit group, please can you upload your most recent accounts when submitting your online form. If your accounts are over 9 months old, please can you supply draft or management accounts showing more current figures.
If you are applying for a capital purchase, such as equipment, a vehicle etc, we would like to see quotes for the item(s) concerned. It is also very helpful to see a budget when asking for a contribution towards a large project. You will have the opportunity to upload these with your online application.
Other items you will need available to upload with your application include a covering letter on your organisation’s headed paper (if possible) and a copy of your organisation’s bank details in an acceptable format (see section above).
If possible, please could you upload your additional documents as PDFs as this is the most compatible format for the Trust’s staff and trustees to view on their office and home devices. If you have a Word or Excel document, you can use the ‘save as’ function to save as a PDF. Photos can be sent as JPGs/PNGs. If you would like to include further attachments in addition to those appended to the online application, you can e-mail them to the Trust but please make sure you clearly state the name of the applicant organisation in your message so we can match it up with the correct application. Ideally, please rename your attachments with filenames that identify the documents as this helps us locate information more easily.
If items such as accounts, quotes or budgets are missing when you apply and we feel we need to see them in order to fully consider your application, we will contact you via e-mail to request them. Please note that this may delay consideration of your application and it may be kept pending until a subsequent meeting.
Terms & Conditions of Grant
The Trust requires all applicants to read and agree to comply with its Terms and Conditions of Grant before submitting an application. Any grant awarded will be subject to these Terms and Conditions. You can find the Terms and Conditions HERE and can DOWNLOAD for your records. These Terms & Conditions apply to all grants awarded from 1st August 2022. For those awarded prior to this date, please refer to this earlier version: Terms & Conditions of Grant PDF V1.
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Exeter Cathedral – June 2023