Main Grants Scheme - Arts

The Main Grants Scheme supports charities registered and operating in the United Kingdom with a core remit of the Arts or Learning.

Arts

The Foundation seeks applications that make a strong artistic case for support in either the performing or visual arts. Our Arts programme aims to help sustain the arts and to support projects that help to deliver your artistic vision. As we seek to support organisations to stabilize and recover from the impact of Coronavirus. we look for value for money, long term benefit and sustainability in projects that we support. Typical areas of support include:

helping to make the arts more accessible by developing new and more diverse audiences encouraging new work and supporting young and emerging artists; skilled freelancers and independent practitioners projects that encourage sustainability by reducing overheads or which help generate additional revenue. This might include environmental improvements to save energy and lower carbon emissions where a cost benefit can be demonstrated.

Safeguarding

We expect all charities applying to the Foyle Foundation, regardless of the type of charity to have considered their safeguarding responsibilities and to have suitable policies and procedures in place to protect from harm people who come into contact with the charity.

As per Charity Commission guidance, if your charity works with children or adults at risk you should:

Establish good safeguarding policies and procedures that all trustees, staff and volunteers follow, which fit with the policies and procedures of your local authority safeguarding partner or safeguarding children or adults board Make sure all staff and volunteers receive regular training on child protection or working with adults at risk Appoint a safeguarding lead to work with your local authority safeguarding boards and/or create a plan for responding to concerns overseas Manage concerns, complaints, whistleblowing and allegations relating to child protection or adults at risk effectively Have clear policies when DBS checks are required, how you assess the level of check needed and how you handle the information You must follow relevant legislation and guidance (please refer to this government guidance for safeguarding and protecting people for charities and trustees for more information). If you do not have adequate safeguarding policies, we may be unable to fund you.

How Much Can You Apply For

The majority of Main Grants are expected to be in the range of £10,000 to £50,000 for revenue projects, with some larger grants possible depending upon need and purpose. Please note that if successful, the Trustees may award less than the amount requested.

If applying for a building project and you are requesting £75,000 or more, please fill in the enquiry form

We welcome applications from all regions and countries of the UK. Please note that we do not support applications from individuals.

Charities must demonstrate ongoing financial viability over the next 12 months. If you cannot demonstrate this, your application is likely to be declined.

For example, you must let us know:

the impact of COVID-19 on your organisation to date if you needed to reduce staff and other costs, or cut back your normal service what services you are now providing and to whom and by what means what your contingencies or fallback position will be if further disruption to your operation occurs what income you have raised to date for the current year your current shortfall for the year and how you consider that this can be met if you have any reserves and how they are being used to support your charity at this time what borrowings have you incurred, or are contemplating, for how much and on what terms as to interest and repayment if you were able to access any central or local government, public agency or lottery funding the details of any other funding sources you are applying for Further Criteria to Consider When Making an Application for Funding

We are unlikely to support start-up costs for new charities.

We are unlikely to consider social and community welfare charities under the Main Grants Scheme.

We are unlikely to consider applications from grant making charities.

Generally the applying charity must be requesting funds for themselves rather than fundraising on behalf of another organisation. The applying charity must take full responsibility for any grant made, and funding for projects/activities/services must be managed/delivered/provided by the applying charity.

Please note, except for core costs, most grants offered will be for restricted funding and cannot be spent on any other purpose without the permission of The Foyle Foundation.

Organisations and projects that provide direct benefits and services to the general public (rather than special interest groups) will be favoured.

We will support projects/initiatives where applicants work in partnership on joint projects with other similar organisations. In such cases a lead organisation, to which any grant will be made, must be identified.

Retrospective funding will not be considered, and we will be unlikely to consider applications towards projects that have already started.