Offenders and Ex-offenders

The Allen Lane Foundation funds small registered charities, voluntary groups, and charitable organisations.

The Foundation has been a keen supporter of penal reform, and funded groups working with offenders for many years. The Foundation supports the work of groups and organisations that work with people in prison, ‘through the gate’, ex-offenders, and those at risk of offending. We are especially keen to support the rehabilitation of people, and work that helps reduce the likelihood of re-offending behaviour. The Foundation has been a strong advocate for the work of Community Chaplaincies, Restorative Justice, and for women in the criminal justice system or at risk of being in the criminal justice system. We have funded specific work with perpetrators of domestic violence, sex offenders and older prisoners and others. We also support organisations which work for change within the criminal justice system. Projects funded include training in employable skills, literacy, a range of art-based projects, work with the families of prisoners, and a range of other activities.

You can apply anytime – we process applications all through the year, and will come back to you within a couple of weeks with our initial thoughts.

Our maximum grant is £15,000. The average grant size is around £5,000-£6,000.

While recognising (and being willing to support) on-going, tried and tested projects, we are also particularly interested in unusual, imaginative or pioneering projects which have perhaps not yet caught the public imagination.

Funding aims and criteria: *We aim to help organisations to become sustainable, supporting running and core costs to enable them to have flexibility, security and longevity. *We focus on work with adults (not children or young people). *We are interested in funding charitable causes which we believe to be unpopular both in society, and with other funders. If you believe your work to be an unpopular cause, both in society generally, and with other funders, and something you think the Foundation may be interested in funding, please email us to tell us more.
*To make sure our grants have an impact, we only fund smaller organisations. If you work across a local area such as a village, estate or town, to be eligible you will need to have an income of less than around £100,000. At the other end of the spectrum, if you work across the whole of the UK you will need to have an income of less than around £250,000. *We fund organisations which are registered charities, and also other organisations which are not charities but which seek funding for a charitable project. (Such as constituted voluntary groups or Community Interest Companies for example.) *We do not make grants to individuals. *We make grants across the United Kingdom. The only exception is that we do not fund work within Greater London. Organisations which have their offices in London are eligible provided the people who benefit from their work are not only in London.

We do NOT fund: *Alcohol or drug misuse. *Animal welfare or animal rights. *Annual or one-off events or festivals. *Capital grants. *Children and young people. *Endowments or contributions to other grant-making bodies. *General arts or cultural or language projects. *General health or healthcare. *Holidays or holiday play-schemes or day-trips. *Individuals. *Medical research. *Museums or galleries. *One-to-one counselling or therapy. *Overseas travel. *Physical or learning disability. *Private and/or mainstream education. *Property purchase, building or refurbishment. *Publications. *Restoration or conservation of historic buildings or sites. *Single nationality community groups. *Sports and recreation. *University or post-graduate education. *Vehicle purchase. *Work which with Trustees believe is rightly the responsibility of the state. *Work which will already have taken place before a grant is agreed.