Applications for the next meeting of the Grants Sub Committee on 24th July 2025 are now closed. We’ve brought forward our deadlines to give staff and trustees more time to properly consider your applications. Trustees have discretion to consider urgent requests submitted after the deadline. The next meeting after this will be in late September, date tbc and you can find the schedule of deadlines on our home page.
*NEW* – The Trust has recently reviewed its grant-making activities and policies. The main change is that we’re now asking applicants to select a category and sub-category under which they are applying and these have now been added to the online application form. Priority will be given to projects in East Devon, as before. Our main focus categories will be (in this order of preference):
- Young People up to age 25
- Animals & Environment
- Adults aged 25+
Under each of these main categories, there are sub-categories which cover a wide range of activities including physical and mental health, social welfare, education and training, sport, community, end of life care. Further details, including example projects for each sub-category can be found HERE (opens in new tab). If your work doesn’t fall under one of our funding categories, we’re unlikely to be able to support it.
The Trust can only consider one application per organisation per financial year, so if you apply for this meeting, you will not be able to apply again until after 1st April 2026. This is applicable to both successful and unsuccessful applicants. If your application is withdrawn, you can re-apply at any time.
Please visit our ‘Apply for Funding’ page to access our online application form.
The vast majority of the Trust’s grants are in the range £1,000 – £5,000 and amounts given above this range tend to be for exceptional local projects or to charities that the Trust has a longstanding relationship with. You can see further information on our Facts & Figures page. Due to being extremely oversubscribed, it is likely that funding could be awarded at a level which is considerably less than the amount requested. Please apply to other funders wherever possible.
The Trust will not support ANY organisation that uses live animals for experimentation or research, regardless of the project requesting funding. Trustees have decided again not to provide funding for festivals this financial year, due to high numbers of applications and limited funds available. Trustees are also far more likely to support smaller, local organisations than those which are national with large fundraising teams.
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.
Trustees would like to see a clear breakdown of how you would spend the amount requested. If this information isn’t provided clearly in the form or as an attachment, we will likely delay consideration of your application and request clarification from you.
All applicants will be informed of the outcome of the meeting within a few days of the meeting. E -mails to successful applicants are usually sent out before the BACS transfers are made so that you know to expect a bank payment from the Trust and we ask that you confirm safe receipt of the funds by e-mail when you have checked your bank account. E-mails from the Trust may end up in your Junk/Spam/Clutter folders so please check before contacting us. Please confirm receipt by e-mail and not by post.
All grant recipients receiving funding of £2,000 or more will be required to provide a short online report 6 months after the grant payment or before re-applying for another grant, whichever happens first. Invitations with a link to the report form will be sent a couple of weeks before the due date but you can get in contact if you’d like to complete it sooner. If you need more time to complete the report, please get in contact for an extension. Further details HERE.
The Trust pays all grants via electronic bank transfer (BACS). Please ensure you supply your proof of bank details in a format that meets our requirements (see Apply for Funding page) when you submit your application. Your application will be put on hold while this information remains outstanding.
The Trust runs a paperless operation and moved to new office accommodation in 2023 (see page footer for address), although staff are also partly working from home. While we can receive post, we don’t have storage for such items so please avoid sending papers to us if possible. E-mail is the most effective means of contact and there is no office telephone number.