GrantRadar

Forte Charitable Foundation

Small Grants and Major Grants

Revenue grants (core costs, salaries, running and project costs) for small and medium local charitable organisations working in the UK's most deprived urban areas and in deprived rural districts. Small Grants (£2,000-£10,000 for one year, for organisations with income up to £250k) fund community support work. Major Grants (£10,000-£50,000 a year, up to £100,000 over three years, for income up to £500k) fund family support. Both programmes fund no more than 50% of a cost and depend on strict postcode deprivation (IMD) rankings. The foundation was formerly Trusthouse Charitable Foundation.

Apply on the funder’s site
You could get
£2,000 – £100,000
no fixed round
Deadline
Rolling
apply any time
Effort
Moderate
full application with documents

Who can apply

  • Registered charities, social enterprises not structured as CICs, co-operative or community benefit societies, not-for-profit registered companies, and voluntary organisations with a constitution and bank account, in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland
  • Applicants must be embedded in the local community, have a demonstrable track record, and have at least one year's annual accounts
  • The organisation's postcode, or the area where it delivers most of its work, must rank in the most deprived 15% on the IMD if urban (population over 10,000) or the most deprived 50% if rural
  • In Northern Ireland the threshold is 50%, except Belfast, Derry/Londonderry, Portadown and Lurgan, where it is 15%
  • The FAQ gives the rank cut-offs for each nation
  • The income limit is £250k for Small Grants and £500k for Major Grants
  • Local branches of national charities qualify only if they have their own charity number
  • You may hold only one application at a time

What it funds

  • Revenue costs: core costs, salaries, running and project costs, capped at 50% of the total cost or of any one salary
  • Small Grants need a community support focus:
  • Advice and guidance
  • Community transport
  • Employability training
  • Volunteering
  • Healthy eating
  • Foodbanks that move people out of crisis
  • Intergenerational work
  • Befriending
  • Community cohesion
  • Community centres and village halls
  • Alternative education
  • Youth clubs and detached youth work
  • NEET opportunities
  • Counselling where statutory services cannot meet demand
  • Family support
  • Substance misuse recovery
  • Major Grants need a family support focus:
  • Early intervention (family hubs, parenting, perinatal mental health, attachment, lone parents)
  • Families coping with addiction
  • Prisoners' families

The foundation prefers frontline organisations and will fund a logical extension of existing work.

What it will not fund

Organisations:

  • Postcodes outside the IMD limits
  • Income over £500k (over £250k for Small Grants)
  • CICs
  • New organisations without a year of accounts
  • Individuals
  • Non-UK charities
  • Statutory bodies (state schools, councils, prisons, NHS)
  • Universities, FE colleges and independent schools
  • Hospices
  • Organisations whose aim is mainly environmental
  • Grant-makers and umbrella bodies
  • Anyone rejected in the last 12 months
  • Late annual returns to the Charity Commission or Companies House in the last 3 years
  • Safeguarding policy or training not reviewed in the last 12 months
  • Reserves over 12 months' operating costs (trustees unlikely to fund)
  • Adventure Playgrounds, Baby Banks and Disability charities

Projects: capital; outside the UK; animal welfare; environment and conservation; medical research; feasibility studies; one-off events (the website exempts Small Grants, but the July 2026 guidelines don't); PR and awareness raising; fundraising posts, events or websites; non-secular activities; mainly film, podcast or media production; campaigning, organisational development or capacity building; urban projects not delivered in the town or city (or London borough) where the applicant is based; work that departs significantly from existing core aims.

How to apply

  • Read the Funding Guidelines, check your postcode's IMD rank, then complete the online eligibility quiz, which leads to the online application form
  • The form has save-and-resume
  • Small Grants is a single-stage form
  • Major Grants has two stages: an online Stage 1 form, then, if the Grants Committee approves it, an invited Stage 2 full application, possibly with an online assessment meeting
  • Both are rolling with no deadlines
  • Don't apply too far ahead of need: spending should start within 1-3 months of the award
  • Staff cannot discuss projects before you apply
  • For Major Grants, applications 'need to be received a minimum of three months prior to the meeting'

Have ready

  • Latest annual accounts, including an Income and Expenditure sheet and a Balance Sheet
  • A budget for the total cost of the work
  • Uploads can be up to 10MB each and 25MB in total
  • Separate application guidance documents explain each question on the Small Grants and Major Grants (Stage 1 and Stage 2) forms

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