GrantRadar

Baily Thomas Charitable Fund

General Grant Programme

Grants from £250 for UK charities working with children or adults with learning disabilities (intellectual disabilities), for capital or revenue costs and for projects or core running costs. The Fund runs two streams: a General Grant Programme for requests over £5,000, decided at trustee meetings in March, June and November with fixed deadlines, and a Small Grant Programme for requests of £5,000 or less, decided by the Chair roughly monthly with no deadline. Its remit is strictly learning disability: services for people with autism, ADHD, dyslexia and similar conditions are only eligible if the applicant states how many users also have a learning disability.

Apply on the funder’s site
You could get
From £250
Deadline
74 days left
31 December
Effort
Moderate
full application with documents

Who can apply

  • Voluntary organisations that are registered charities or are associated with (affiliated to) a registered charity; where the applicant is not itself a registered charity, the associated charity takes on the grant and is paid it
  • Schools, Parent Teacher Associations, Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies and other exempt charities can also apply (a school or PTFA application would have to be for something such as an extra-curricular club, not statutory provision)
  • Community Interest Companies and individuals cannot apply
  • Organisations and projects must be based in the UK
  • The work must benefit people with learning disabilities (intellectual disabilities); inclusive services that also serve people without learning disabilities are eligible if the application states the approximate number or proportion of users who have learning disabilities
  • No income limit is published, but trustees target charities that could not reasonably fund the request from reserves: if you ask for more than four times your free reserves you must explain your use of reserves
  • An organisation cannot normally reapply for two years after a successful grant or one year after an unsuccessful one, and only one application per organisation is considered at any meeting

What it funds

Capital and revenue costs, for specific projects or for general running/core costs, that benefit people with learning disabilities (intellectual disabilities: IQ under 70, needing support with ordinary daily activities, onset before 18), with or without autism, children or adults. Areas of work normally within policy:

  • Capital building, renovation and refurbishment works for residential, nursing and respite care, and schools
  • Employment schemes (e.g. woodwork, crafts, printing, horticulture)
  • Play schemes and play therapy
  • Day and social activity centres including building and running costs
  • Support for families including respite
  • Independent living schemes
  • Support in the community schemes
  • Snoezelen rooms

Grants are usually one-off; exceptionally a new project may be funded over two or three years.

Grants from £250; the amount depends on purpose, total need and other funding sources, sometimes including match funding.

Requests of £5,000 or less go through the Small Grant Programme; requests over £5,000 through the General Grant Programme.

No maximum is published.

What it will not fund

  • Work for people with mental illness, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, specific language disorders, autism, ADHD, blindness, deafness, epilepsy, specific motor disorders, adult-onset head injury, stroke or dementia, unless they also have learning disabilities (intellectual disabilities)
  • Physical disabilities unless accompanied by significant learning disabilities
  • Acquired brain injury, unless the resulting learning disability occurred early in the developmental period (birth, infancy or childhood)
  • Hospices
  • Minibuses, except for residential and/or day care services for people with learning disabilities
  • Advocacy projects
  • Conductive Education projects
  • Arts and theatre projects
  • Swimming and hydrotherapy pools
  • Anything considered to be statutory
  • Grants to individuals
  • Community Interest Companies
  • Organisations or projects outside the UK
  • Requests for the full project cost where the applicant is not evidently fundraising elsewhere
  • Organisations that have received a grant from the linked Rix-Thompson-Rothenberg Foundation within the last two years (applicants cannot apply to both)

How to apply

  1. Check the eligibility criteria and definition of learning disabilities, and sections 2.5 and 2.6 of the General grant guidelines (on the Documents page)
  2. Ask two independent referees who know your organisation or project (not current trustees) to act for you
  3. Complete the online application form (the downloadable form in the guidelines can be used to prepare answers; word limits apply and longer answers will be edited)
  4. Upload your latest annual report and accounts and safeguarding policy with the form, or email them to info@bailythomas.org.uk quoting your application reference (or post them to the Secretary)
  5. Contact your referees immediately after submitting and ask them to send their references within 14 days; the application is not considered until both references are received
  6. Requests over £5,000 are considered at the next trustee meeting after the deadline; requests of £5,000 or less are considered by the Chair, usually monthly
  7. All applicants are told the decision in writing (small grant outcomes through the online system); successful applicants sign and return a grant offer letter and the grant is paid by cheque, normally within a month

Deadlines for requests over £5,000 are 31 December (March meeting), 31 March (June meeting) and 31 August (November meeting); late submissions are not permitted. There is no deadline for requests of £5,000 or less.

Applications may be selected for independent review by the Fund's panel of Assessors. Trustees do not usually visit. Successful applicants submit a brief written monitoring report.

If you have no internet access, contact the Secretary to the Trustees; handwritten applications are not accepted.

Have ready

  • Online application form
  • Latest annual report and accounts (of the associated registered charity if you are not one yourself)
  • Safeguarding policy
  • Two independent written references, sent by the referees
  • Health and Safety questionnaire (only if the grant is to employ people with a learning disability in your own enterprise)

A schedule of costings is optional. Do not send photographs, architectural drawings or plans unless asked. Documents not uploaded at submission can be emailed or posted afterwards with your reference number.

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