General Application FAQs

Eligibility

What types of organisations are eligible to apply?

The Trust only funds registered UK charities, CICs, CIOs and exempt charities (an exempt charity has charitable status and is required to comply with charity law).

We do not fund voluntary community groups, constituted groups/forums, hospices, gyms, sports centres, nurseries, or ‘not-for-profit’ companies, or individuals in any capacity, even if the work being undertaken is charitable.

If you want to apply for a grant this will need to be done via a UK registered charity, or one of the eligible organisation types listed above.

My organisation is a branch of a larger organisation, are we eligible to apply?

We will not consider funding charitable branches of larger organisations if the parent organisation’s income exceeds £1 million. If you are a subsidiary of a larger organisation you will need to be independently registered with the Charity Commission or Companies House. We will also not fund branches where the majority of their income is provided by a national organisation.  

My organisation’s work is based outside of the UK, are we eligible to apply?

We no longer fund organisations based outside of the UK nor those primarily working overseas.

My organisation is new, and we do not have any accounts, are we still eligible to apply?

Yes, please indicate this clearly on your application and submit a copy of your projected budget forecast instead of historic accounts. If you have recently changed your status, for example from a CIC to a charity, then please include the accounts from your previous organisation.

The income or expenditure of my charity was greater than £200,000 in the last financial year, can I still apply?

The Trustees have reduced the maximum income level for organisations applying for funding to under £200,000 per year, this is again in order to maximise the benefit of the size of grant that we make. If your income exceeded this amount for one year, for example due to a capital appeal or a particularly large donation or legacy then please let us know this and you can still be considered. However, if this was not an exceptional event then I’m afraid you will not be eligible.

What types of work are considered ‘core costs’?

Core costs would include staff salaries, rent, utilities, general office costs, accountancy and audit costs, fundraising, governance and compliance and costs supporting the core programmes of the organisation.

If my organisation has recently been awarded a grant, can I apply for the next general grant round?

Yes, you are eligible to apply for a grant for up to three years in a row, or three times within a five year period. If you have reached this, then we ask you to wait for two years before reapplying.

If my organisation’s recent application has been rejected, should I apply for the next grant round?

If your organisation has made several applications year on year and never been awarded a grant, we ask you to please consider whether your work fits our funding priorities in order to save you the time in reapplying. We will however always review all applications submitted.

Can I apply for both the general grant round and summer playschemes at the same time?   

No.

Application Process

I would like to submit an electronic application, where can I find the form?

We are only accepting online applications which can be accessed under the ‘How to Apply’ tab, either under the ‘General Applications’ or ‘Children’s Summer Playschemes’ pages.

I am unable to submit an electronic application, can I still apply?

We strongly encourage all organisations to submit an online form, however If this is a problem for you please email the administrator Karin Hooper at contact@woodwardcharitabletrust.org.uk. 

What documentation do I need to submit?

Please complete the online application form. Within this there is a section for you to include details of your budget, if you feel you need us to see more details of your budget, you may upload an excel document if necessary, but this should not exceed one page.

If your accounts are not available on the UK Charity Commission or Companies House or if they are older than 6 months, please submit a copy of the last year of your audited accounts. If your accounts are available on the UK Charity Commission but the income/ expenditure noted on your form are from recent unaudited, draft accounts, please upload a copy of these along with your application.

Please upload a Safeguarding/Child and/or a Vulnerable Adults Policy if you work directly with any of these groups.

What should my budget look like?

Anticipated income for the current financial year.

Anticipated expenditure for the current financial year broken down into charitable and non charitable costs.

Non charitable would include items such as fundraising and marketing and charitable would cover all your project and core costs related to your work.

If you would like, you are welcome to add to these headings but please note that this is the minimum information that the Trustees require.

Our organisation has two addresses, one for where our organisation is registered and one for the office where we are based, which should we put down on the application?

Please submit the address from which you will be able to receive Royal Mail letters.

I am having trouble submitting my online application, what should I do?

If you are getting red flags that are not allowing you to submit your application please read these carefully as they will alert you to input specifications such as ‘numeric only’ fields within your application which you will need to amend before proceeding. If you are still having issues then please email portal-support [@] woodwardcharitabletrust.org.uk.

Post-Submission

Will I receive a copy of my application?

Unfortunately, our current system will not automatically send you a copy of your submitted application. We recommend you save the text from your form before pressing ‘submit’ if you would like to have a copy for your reference.

I applied for a previous grant round, but am yet to hear back, how do I know if I have been successful or not?

You should have received an email confirming if you have received a grant along with an award letter. This email will have been sent to the contact email address you submitted along with your application (we switched from postal award letters to email letters during the pandemic).

We email all applicants to confirm whether or not they have been successful by the end of April or November (depending on the grant round). If you have not received an email, you can also check the Recent Awards page which lists the successful applicants from the last three grant rounds.

If my organisation has been unsuccessful, will I receive feedback?

No. Due to the large volumes of applications we receive unfortunately we are unable to give feedback on individual applications.