Forte Charitable Foundation Grants

The Foundation want to fund work which addresses the challenges of local communities in areas of extreme deprivation with their preference for front line organisations working directly with people in need.

Examples of organisations and projects they fund:

• Community Centres: Salary or running costs for community centres or village halls which offer a range of activities for all ages
• Early intervention: Sub-set of Family Support
• Alternative Education: Support schemes for young people struggling in mainstream education; homework clubs; supplementary education classes for vulnerable individuals
• Families coping with addiction
• Counselling: Counselling for any age in areas where statutory services are unable to cope with demand
• Prisoners’ families
• Young People: Youth clubs and detached youth work; after school and holiday clubs; opportunities for NEETs.
• Addictions: Addiction and recovery support projects
• Homeless Support Services
• Community Support – Small Grants: Information, advice and guidance services; community transport schemes; employability training; volunteering; healthy eating and living; foodbanks which support clients out of crisis into long term sustainability; intergenerational projects; befriending; community cohesion
• Family Support – Major Grants: Early intervention; families coping with addiction; prisoners’ families

Small Grants are open to any eligible organisation with a total annual income up to £250,000.

Major Grants are open to any eligible organisation with a total annual income up to £500,000.

Who and what they will fund:

• Charitable organisations (including social enterprises, not-for-profit registered companies and voluntary organisations) in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
• UK based small to medium sized local organisations with a demonstrable track record of success working to address local issues in communities of extreme urban deprivation and deprived rural districts
• Revenue costs including core costs, salaries, running and project costs

Organisations they do not fund:

• Organisations whose postcode is not within the IMD deprivation limits set out in their funding guidelines
• Newly established organisations with no previous annual accounts
• Individuals, whether direct or through a third party
• Charities or NGOs registered outside the UK
• Community Interest Companies (CICs)
• Statutory services including state schools, local or national authorities, prisons, NHS hospitals or services
• Universities, further education colleges and independent schools
• Organisations with an annual income over £500,000
• Hospices
• Organisations with primarily an environmental aim
• Grant making organisations or umbrella organisations
• Organisations that have applied to them unsuccessfully within the previous 12 months
• Organisations which have made their annual returns to the Charity Commission or Companies House late within the past three years
• Organisations which have not reviewed their safeguarding policy and/or held formal safeguarding training/refresher sessions within the past 12 months
• Trustees are unlikely to fund organisations holding more than twelve months operating costs in reserves

Types of projects they do not fund

• Capital projects
• Set up costs for new organisations
• Projects outside the UK
• Animal welfare
• Environment and conservation
• Medical research
• Feasibility studies
• One-off events (except under the Small Grants programme)
• PR and awareness raising; fundraising salaries, events, initiatives or websites
• Non-secular activities
• Projects primarily concerned with the production of films, podcasts or other media
• For Small Grants: urban projects not delivered in the same city/town (or borough for London) in which the applying organisation is based
• For Major Grants: Adventure Playgrounds, Baby Banks and Disability charities

Small Grants from £2,000 to £10,000

Main Grants from £10,000 to £100,000