Agnes Hunter Grant

The Agnes Hunter Trust SCIO operates two rounds of grants each year. Both rounds offer support to charities that match 1 of the 2 Policy areas as listed on the ‘What We Fund’ page.

The Trust provides grants of between £3,000-£15,000/yr. The Recent grants webpage provides information on the levels of grants awarded at recent Board meetings. Whilst most of the grants awarded are between £5,000-£10,000 the Trust reserves a degree of flexibility on these award values.

Termed grant applications for grants covering two or three years are encouraged, as well as one year grants.

The Trust looks to make maximum impact on the delivery of a project or service, and therefore the preference is to fund a greater proportion of the total project cost (TPC). Therefore, the Trust will only award grants that equate to at least 10% of the TPC.

What we fund: What we fund:

Policy Areas In line with Miss Hunter’s original aims, the Trust has two key areas of funding support:

• Charities that help disabled people.
• Charities that assist with the education and training of disadvantaged people aged 16 years or over and who have left school.

The Trust will invest in registered charities that deliver key services to these individuals; removing barriers that restrict life choices and enabling people to lead fulfilling lives and contribute to society.

Such charities may assist specific groups of people, for example those living with learning disabilities, mental ill health, specific types of cancer, cerebral palsy, autism, visual or physical impairments. Disadvantaged people includes those whose life experiences or environment have so far denied them opportunities to develop the skills to support themselves and contribute positively to society.

Areas of priority The Trust seeks to encourage inclusion, integration and independence.

Priorities for the Trust include services or projects that focus on:

• Self-management and awareness
• Advice, support and information
• Life-skills training
• Employability, particularly in relation to IT, literacy and numeracy
• Helping people participate and contribute to their community

In addition, the Trust is particularly keen to hear from the following:

• smaller charities with a strong local community presence
• causes that do not have a strong public profile, including start-up organisations
• charities developing innovative approaches, including pilot projects

The next round of grants will open on Thursday 23 June 2022, with a deadline of 5pm on Thursday 25 August.

Those applications will be decided at the Board meeting on Thursday 24 November 2022.

Every year there are two rounds of grants, with Board decision meetings every May/June and November. Grant application deadlines are approximately 12-14 weeks prior (typically late Feb/early March and late August/early Sept). All applications are then assessed, during which time the Grant Programme will be closed to new applications and this webpage will be updated accordingly.

Who can apply:

The Trustees welcome relevant applications from independent organisations recognised as charitable by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator in Scotland (OSCR).

All funding requests must be for work within Scotland.

The Trust no longer offers grants to large charities with an income of over £2.5m/yr. Applicants should hold reasonable but not excessive free reserves, unless there is a particular reason for holding a higher level. In the case of start-up organisations with limited reserves, applicants can provide evidence of their likely sustainability over the term of the grant.

Grant requests to the Trust can be towards an organisation’s core costs or direct project costs, including staff salaries and overheads.