Enhance Grants

The Eveson Trust is able to consider applications for financial support from charitable organisations helping people with disabilities, mental health problems, children in need, older people, homeless people, hospitals, hospices and towards medical research.

Enhance Grants: Charities that we have supported previously may apply for a grant of up to £10,000 towards the cost of training or consultancy advice in the areas listed below. National charities are not eligible for this grant scheme as we cannot fund work that would have a national benefit beyond our area of remit.

As with regular grant applications, the Trustees will consider whether a charity has sufficient reserves to fund the consultancy work or training by itself.

-Strategy and Business Planning: Hiring consultants to advise on strategy and business planning. Service evaluation. Feasibility study – needs analysis. Support with adapting services and moving existing services online. -Safeguarding: Safeguarding training for management, staff and volunteers. Help with writing safeguarding policy and procedures. -Finance: Financial management training Consultancy advice on the financial health of the charity. -Fundraising: Fundraising consultancy advice to develop an income generation strategy. (We cannot support fundraising costs.) -Marketing and Communications: Support with brand development, social media, media training, website development -Human Resources: Consultancy advice on HR issues Volunteer management Leadership training -Governance: Trustee training Board evaluation Consultancy on governance issues e.g. new articles of association.

You may apply more than once under this scheme, but priority will be given to charities which have not previously benefited from an ‘Enhance’ grant. You can apply while you currently hold a grant from us. We won’t fund work that has already taken place. We will not select a consultancy firm for you; we require you to have carried out a competitive tender process and selected the firm that you feel comfortable working with at a reasonable price. Before applying, please consider whether your charity has the resources to commit the time necessary to engage with the consultancy process and to act on the advice received. We will require a report at the end of the grant period which details how the support provided has met the need described in the grant application and includes an action plan for the charity’s next steps. We will ask the charity to report on progress made against the plan.

The Trustees are unable to consider applications for support from individuals and it is their policy not to consider applications submitted by charitable institutions on behalf of individuals.

We will consider applications from Special Needs schools and colleges and we do fund charities carrying out educational projects either with disadvantaged children or with pupils at schools in clearly disadvantaged areas. We will fund core costs as well as project costs and capital projects. We usually only accept one application a year from an organisation. If the project for which you have been awarded a grant takes a while to begin, you will not be able to apply again until you have used this grant. We do not normally make retrospective grants so please consider carefully when your project will start and the timing of your application.

We only fund charities supporting the residents of – Herefordshire – Worcestershire – The West Midlands (comprising Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull and Walsall and Wolverhampton). The charitable work must be taking place in our funding area. National charities should take particular care to evidence that the beneficiaries of their project live in our area and, in the case of national helplines, should request an amount which reflects the eligible beneficiaries as a proportion of total beneficiaries.

The Eveson Trust will consider applications from registered charities which support: The homeless -Hospices -Hospitals (‘Hospitals’ includes NHS Charities; charities working in hospitals; charities supporting patients en route to hospital such as First Responders, Air Ambulance charities or ambulance charities; and charities supporting patients when they are discharged from hospital.) -Older people -People with physical disabilities including the Blind and the Deaf -People with learning difficulties -People in need of support with their mental health -Children and young people up to the age of 25 who are disadvantaged or disabled.

By ‘disadvantaged’, we mean: -children and young people living in poverty -children and young people facing social disadvantage, perhaps due to the area they live in -having a lack of facilities -young carers -bereaved children and young people -children and young people in the care system or leaving the care system -children and young people with a parent in prison -children living in refuges -child victims of sexual abuse -children and young people at risk of gang exploitation -young people in the justice system -children and young people who are refugees or migrants.