Blagrave Trust regional grants

The trust funds youth work and young people in three ways: youth charities serving young people in the poorest parts of the South East of England; young people directly, particularly those with lived experiences of injustice; and youth policy research and advocacy at a national level.

The trust invests in youth organisations supporting young people aged 16 and older in Berkshire, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Sussex and Wiltshire.

What grants are there?

There are two types of grant:

• Small grants for organisations working in the frontline, often in the poorest parts of the South East region, providing support for the young people. Decisions are made each month.

• Partnership grants are longer, strategic partnerships with youth organisations where there is close alignment with the trust’s mission. These grants are larger and decisions are made in March, July and November.

Both offer unrestricted funding for three years although partnerships can sometimes run for longer.

How much is available?

Small grants are for sums under £20,000 per year. These applications are reviewed monthly and decisions should be received within two months of submitting a proposal. To be accepted, applicants must be agreed by a minimum of three members of the Blagrave team.

Partnership grants are for applications of more than £20,000 a year. These are decided by the trustees with applicants notified within three months.

In 2020, the latest available figures, 91 grants were made totalling £1.8m. This represented a third more than the 61 grants made in 2019 due to the introduction of grant funding for individuals and an additional round of funding to support young people through the Covid-19 pandemic.

What are the trust’s priorities?

The trust has launched a new five-year strategy covering the period 2022-26.

It identifies three strategic aims to serve young people, create long-term systems change and drive youth engagement and leadership.

Its priorities are that:

• Funding will benefit the young people it serves, especially those from the poorest areas

• There is clear evidence of impact for young people

• Organisations take an intersectional approach

• Young people are demonstrably in support of, or driving, the work.

What exclusions are there?

For the regional funding, the trust only funds charities or registered community interest companies and does not fund unconstituted groups or individuals. It funds work with young people in the UK but prioritises organisations based in Berkshire, Hampshire, Sussex and Wiltshire.

Applications to promote religion or for major capital appeals are not accepted.

Any other useful information?

The average success rate for enquiries at outline proposal stage is 15 per cent. If a proposal is put before the trustees there is a 90 per cent success rate. Occasionally some proposals may be deferred if trustees have further questions.

Where there are further questions, the trust explores these with the applicant, and will usually arrange a meeting to learn more about the work. The team will then prepare a grant proposal.

Who has been funded?

Recent grant recipients include social enterprise Team Domenica, which supports people with learning disabilities to be valued in the workplace so that they reach their full potential and feel included in society, and Readipop, a charity that uses music and arts to enrich communities and the cultural landscape of Reading and the Thames Valley supporting vulnerable young people and aspiring artists and musicians.

• More from: www.blagravetrust.org/

Funding roundup

• Charity Motability has committed to funding the Family Fund Mobility Support scheme for the next three years, ensuring 1,215 families across the UK, with disabled children, have easier access to appointments, reliability during emergencies and enough space to attend to their children’s urgent medical needs, when required. Thanks to £5m of funding, the scheme will give families with very young children, who have complex needs, access to a lease car that is tailored to their individual mobility requirements. A pilot scheme carried out between January 2018 and December 2021 helped 434 families.

• Environmental charity Groundwork has received a grant of £300,000 from property investor and develop Firethorn Trust to deliver community projects in Leighton Buzzard, Peterborough, Ellesmere Port, Sherburn-in-Elmet, Barnsley and Northampton. The projects take a holistic approach to the needs of communities – supporting education and environment programmes, boosting employment and upskilling opportunities and tackling the challenges of food poverty.

• The recipients of the first round of the government grants delivered through the Youth Investment Fund have been announced. Initial funding of £12m will support more than 400 local youth services through the £380m scheme. The funding, handed out in areas including Carlisle, Norfolk and Coventry, ranges from £5,000 to £318,000 and is intended to cover “small-scale capital improvements” such as new laptops to youth groups, small redevelopments of buildings and facilities, and improving transport for services.