The Belgae Trust

The Belgae Trust Grants

The Belgae Trust is a small family-run charitable trust, founded in 2016, that makes grants of up to £3,000 to smaller charities and CICs for project work reflecting the personal interests of its board: information technology, social care and mental/emotional health, education for young people, small community arts organisations, and conservation of the environment. It funds projects only, never ongoing overheads, and only where the whole project costs less than £50,000. Applying is unusually light: a one-page expression of interest form emailed to the trust, with no accounts or supporting documents requested at that stage. Priority goes to Hampshire, with adjacent counties considered only very occasionally.

Apply on the funder’s site

You could get: Up to £3,000; no fixed round
Deadline: Rolling; apply any time
Effort: Light; short form, little evidence needed

Who can apply

Smaller charities and CICs whose cause fits one of the trust's five areas (IT, social care/mental and emotional health, education for young people, small community arts, environment)
The trust states it 'solely support[s] smaller charities (and CICs) who require funding for projects with a value of less than £50,000', so the size test is applied to the project rather than to the organisation's income, and the applicant must be able to show the work is a discrete project rather than core running costs
On geography the trust says 'Priority will be given to applications from within Hampshire
We will very occasionally consider applications from charities from adjacent counties, but not further afield' - so Hampshire is a stated priority rather than an absolute bar, but anything beyond the counties bordering Hampshire is ruled out
The trust is family-run and funds causes relating to the personal interests of its board members, so a close fit with one of the five headings matters more than scale

What it funds

Project-based work only, in one of five stated causes:

Advancing public understanding of information technology
Promoting physical, mental and emotional health
Helping to remove barriers to educational advancement among young people in this country
Encouraging small community arts organisations
Promoting the conservation of the environment for the benefit of the public

The project as a whole must cost less than £50,000, of which the trust will contribute a maximum of £3,000.

What it will not fund

An organisation's ongoing overheads
Anything that is not a specific project
Projects with a total value of £50,000 or more
Larger charities - the trust solely supports smaller charities and CICs
Applications from beyond Hampshire and its adjacent counties

How to apply

Download the one-page expression of interest form from belgaetrust.org
Complete it: organisation name and charity number, contact name and job title, organisation and correspondence address, phone, email, website
State the total grant requested, the total project cost, funds secured to date and who else is funding the work
Tick which of the five causes your project relates to, describe the work and what the grant would pay for, explain why it is needed and why your organisation is the right one to deliver it, and give your measurable aims
Sign and date the declaration
Email the completed form to jan@belgaetrust.org (it can also be posted to The Belgae Trust, 66 Romsey Road, Winchester, Hampshire SO22 5PH)

the trust says 'all we need from you is a completed expression of interest form' - no accounts or other attachments are asked for at this stage

Have ready

Completed expression of interest form

no accounts, policies or other supporting documents are requested up front

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