Third funder announces temporary closure to review strategy
Melanie May | 11 October 2024 | News
The Will Charitable Trust has announced that it is to close temporarily to applications from 15 November this year.
This follows last month’s announcements of temporary closures by City Bridge Trust, and Schroder Charity Trust.
The Will Charitable Trust was established in 1990, and funds charities working in the areas of blind care, long term care of people with learning disabilities, cancer care. It provides project and sometimes unrestricted grants.
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In a statement on its site, the Trust says that the closure will enable its Trustees to review their strategy, and that “it is likely that changes will be made to the grants programme.”
It expects to be able to accept applications for its revised programme from around midsummer 2025, with the date to be announced on the website in due course.
While it will close to applications from 15 November, the statement notes that applications made before then as part of capital appeals that will still be running in autumn 2025 are unlikely to succeed.
In addition, while closed, charities that have received a grant will still be expected to comply with reporting requirements, and its Grants Office will continue to be staffed from time to time.
Other grantmaker closures
In September, City Bridge Trust announced that it would be closing to new funding applications for a year due to unprecedented demand. During this time it will be undertaking a funding review, and using this period to process hundreds of outstanding applications.
Announcing its own temporary closure, Schroder Charity Trust said it was doing so to undertake a review of its grant making programme and strategy for 2025 and beyond. It said that recent analysis has identified that the current success rate for grant applications to the Trust was approximately 1 in 14 and that it didn’t deem the current grants programme to be effective. It anticipates reopening its grants programme early next year.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.