Wesleyan Foundation invites more grant applications
Howard Lake | 20 December 2017 | News
The Wesleyan Foundation has made grants of more than £300,000 in its first six months, and is intending to give up to £700,000 in the next six months. It is therefore inviting more applications from small charities.
The Wesleyan Foundation was set up in May 2017 by financial services mutual Wesleyan. It is designed to provide financial support for “causes that are important to our members, customers and the communities in which we live and work”. Administered by the Heart of England Community Foundation, it anticipates giving £1 million a year.
Every quarter Wesleyan invites its customers and supporters of the chosen causes to vote for the cause they would most like to support. The more votes a cause gets, the bigger the share of support it receives.
The Foundation supports both local community groups and charities nationwide. Its four core themes are:
- health
- education
- social development
- innovation.
VOTE NOW: @Dentaid_Charity, @TheCitizenAID, @StreetDoctors & @LawCareLtd have been selected to receive @Wesleyan Foundation funding! Your vote will help determine the amount each cause receives! https://t.co/NALFGVoaQO pic.twitter.com/T9XsCzQHS8
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— Wesleyan (@Wesleyan) December 11, 2017
Size of grants
Organisations can apply for three levels of funding including:
- small grants of £2,000 and under
- medium-sized awards of between £2,000 and £10,000
- discretionary large grants of more than £10,000.
Some of the smaller grants are given out on a discretionary basis.
Lauren (left) and Louise (right) with Ailith Harley-Robert, Service Manager at Sunshine and Smiles, which has received funding from the Wesleyan Foundation.
Charities that have received funding over the past six months include Brandwood Community Centre, Birmingham, which hired two new staff members to support a debt advice service, a Leeds Down’s Syndrome group, which is set to open a new cafe and Nottingham-based Broxtowe Youth Homelessness, which used the funding to launch a drop-in service.
Geographical reach
In its first year, the Wesleyan Foundation has been set up with community foundations in:
- Birmingham
- The Black Country
- Warwickshire
- South Yorkshire
- Leeds & Bradford
- Somerset
- Nottinghamshire
- Leicestershire & Rutland
- Wales
- Scotland
- Northern Ireland
Tina Costello, CEO of the Heart of England Charity Foundation said: “Funding in the voluntary sector has reduced dramatically in recent years so it’s fantastic that Wesleyan is now providing financial support on this scale through its Foundation.”
Find out how to a member of the public can nominate a project or a charity can apply for funding from the Wesleyan Foundation.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.