Grants
of the pandemic. These included the Tesco Bags of Help Covid-19 Communities Fund and the Youth Endowment Fund’s Covid-19 round. A lot of the emergency funding
that emerged early in the pandemic has been and gone. However, a number of grant funders are offering more as a result of the impact on schools. For example, John Lyon’s Charity has pledged an additional £22million in funding to support children and young people in London over the next six years, starting with a grants programme to ensure children have access to high-quality arts activities. Unsurprisingly, funding for trips
A new
Much has changed in the grants world over the past year. Sarah Everson provides an update on how schools can secure those all-important funds
T
his time last year, many grant-giving trusts had paused their programmes as a result of Covid-19. In some
cases, this was a response to the uncertainty surrounding the impact of the pandemic. In others it came down to practicalities: administering grant applications just wasn’t feasible when staff were forced away from the office or furloughed. With schools closed and extra-
curricular activities off the cards, many funders found that activities meeting their usual grant-giving criteria were simply not possible.
The Foyle Foundation, for instance, paused its Main Grants and School Library Schemes until late 2020. And SHINE, which works to boost the attainment of disadvantaged children in the north of England, prioritised funding and support for its current projects and grantees until autumn 2020, when it began awarding new grants again. As the severity of the pandemic
became clear, some funders, such as National Lottery Awards for All and the Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland, broadened their areas of interest to include Covid-19 recovery. Other trusts introduced new funding streams specifically for projects tackling the implications
‘Competition for grants over
the past year has been fierce, with most funders receiving far more requests that they can possibly fulfil’
and residentials had, until recently, been curtailed, with restrictions preventing some activities from taking place. As FundEd went to press, the Henry Smith Charity’s Holiday Grants for Children had just reopened for applications, but the British Council’s International Exchanges Programme was still on hold. Other options have emerged, however, with the recently launched Turing Scheme now accepting applications for students wishing to study overseas. There’s no denying
that competition for grants over the past year has been fierce, with most
funders receiving far more
requests than they can possibly fulfil. Indeed, The Steel Charitable Trust reported it was receiving twice as many requests for funding, making the probability of receiving one of its grants only 1 in 20. Despite the hurdles, grant funding
is definitely still out there. One good way to increase your school’s chances of getting funded is to broaden your focus away from national grants; local funders are generally keen to support Covid recovery and projects benefiting young people in their communities. As ever, do make sure you
thoroughly research whether your project is a good fit for the funder’s areas of interest and grant-giving criteria. And remember, there will be a lot of other organisations vying for a slice of the funding, so an application that is well researched and persuasively written is more important than ever.
FundEd SUMMER 2021 47
IMAGE: KALINOVSKIY /
ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
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