The Clothesworkers Foundation Grant

They will fund both large and small projects. The size of grant awarded will depend on several factors including the size of your organisation and the cost and scale of your capital project.

Whilst there is no limit, the average grant is £25,000.

Grants are awarded towards capital projects, which we define as:

• Buildings: purchase, construction, renovation or refurbishment
• Fittings, Fixtures, and Equipment: this includes but is not limited to office equipment and furniture, sports and gym equipment, digital and audio-visual equipment, software and websites, garden equipment, specialist therapeutic (excluding medical) equipment. It does not include equipment for one-off use, or which will be given to service users for personal use on a permanent basis
• Vehicles: This includes (but is not exclusive to) minibuses, cars, caravans, people carriers, 4×4 and boats. They are unlikely to fund the total cost of a new vehicle or award funding to an organisation that already owns many vehicles. They do not provide grants towards vehicle leasing or award funding to organisations whose core activity is community transport

You must be able to demonstrate that the work of your organisation fits within one or more of their open grant programme areas below, and that at least 50% of service users benefiting from the capital project are from one or more of those groups.

Open Grants Programme areas include:

• Communities experiencing racial inequalities
• Disabilities including mental health and visual impairment
• Domestic and Sexual abuse
• Economic disadvantage
• Homelessness
• LGBT+ Communities
• Older people facing disadvantage
• Prison and rehabilitation
• Substance misuse and addiction
• Young people facing disadvantage

All potential applicants must complete an Eligibility Quiz to determine whether they should submit an application. The Foundation never work with third-party agents or consultants to source or solicit applications to their Open Grant Programme, and no special preference is given to applications or organisations that work with third-party agents to submit their applications. Each application is assessed independently and equitably by their grants team and board of trustees against their criteria.

To take the Eligibility Quiz, follow this link to The Clothworkers Foundation.

They do not fund non-capital costs. Items which they consider to be non-capital include:

• Salaries and overheads
• Volunteer expenses
• Training
• Rent
• Costs associated with the lease of property or equipment
• Professional fees
• Marketing/literature/leaflets
• Equipment for one-off use, or which will be given to service users for personal use on a permanent basis
• One-off events

Types of organisations they do not fund:

• Organisations who have received a grant offer from us within the last five years (unless they have been specifically invited to reapply).
• Organisations that promote a particular religion or only provide services to people of a particular religion.
• Organisations who have had an application declined in the last six months (please note: you cannot reapply for the same project if it has been declined).
• Those with over £10 million income per annum.
• Those with over 12 months of reserves.
• Those that primarily provide services to other organisations – sometimes described ‘second tier’ or ‘infrastructure’ organisations. For example, a CVS (council for voluntary service) or membership group would not be eligible (unless they also provide direct or front-line services, and the project they are applying for specifically relates to that part of their delivery).
• Hospices and NHS charities.
• Grant-making organisations.
• Schools, colleges or universities – unless their students are exclusively individuals with physical and/or learning disabilities (e.g. special schools). Please note: we do not fund PRUs (pupil referral units) or Alternative Provision providers.
• Almshouses.
• Retrospective projects (ie, we do not award funding for projects that have already been completed).

Types of projects they do not fund:

• Applications for a project which they have previously declined (please note: organisations can reapply for a different project after six months)
• Medical research or equipment
• Consumables such as clothes, food, sports kits and stationery
• Setting up/refurbishment of charity shops
• General appeals and emergency appeals
• Political projects
• Heritage projects
• Arts and education projects unless they work exclusively with individuals from their programme areas