GrantRadar

The Van Neste Foundation

Van Neste Foundation Grants

A Bristol and Bath area trust making grants to UK registered charities and UK registered CICs under two headings: social change, and children and young people. It is explicit that national appeals will not be supported and that large NGOs are unlikely to receive anything — the money is concentrated where the trustees think a small amount can make a difference. Trustees assess applications three times a year, typically January, June and October.

Apply on the funder’s site
You could get
Amount not specified
no fixed round
Deadline
Rolling
apply any time
Effort
Moderate
full application with documents

Who can apply

  • The vast majority of grants go to UK registered charities and UK registered Community Interest Companies
  • Your organisation must be located in, and your work must be within, Bristol, Bath and the surrounding areas — the Foundation states plainly that if it is not, your application will not be successful
  • CICs face an extra requirement: the trustees need additional certainty that any grant will be used for a charitable purpose, and the Foundation asks CICs not to submit at all without a letter from a solicitor confirming this
  • Applications are assessed on how effectively they meet one or both of the two funding areas, so the Foundation asks that the application be structured to show why your project or organisation does work it funds

What it funds

  • Two areas
  • Social change:
  • Organisations seeking to change society positively
  • Community organisations working to include people who have become marginalised as a group or as individuals
  • Work promoting a sense of place and environmental improvement in urban or rural settings
  • Work encouraging the systemic change needed to alleviate poverty and make a more just and less unequal society
  • Children and young people:
  • Work that encourages those who will shape the future and helps ensure they reflect the whole of society
  • Work ensuring young people feel society offers them something
  • All types of activity for young people including sport, drama, music, food and travel

The trustees say they want to encourage innovation, self-help and those who take it upon themselves to tackle social injustice.

What it will not fund

  • National appeals
  • Large NGOs — the trustees say they are unlikely to give to them
  • Applications from organisations not located in, or not working in, Bristol, Bath and the surrounding areas — the Foundation states these will not be successful

the Foundation says it does not see itself as an environmental charity, although it accepts that social and environmental issues are interlinked

How to apply

  1. Read the criteria on the Foundation's home page carefully and structure your application to show why your project or organisation does work the Foundation funds
  2. Download the application form from the Application Process page
  3. Complete the form and upload it, with any associated documents, using the upload facility on the same Application Process page — give your full name or organisation, email address, a message and the file

CICs must include the solicitor's letter confirming charitable use before submitting, not afterwards

the Foundation briefly assesses applications as they arrive and will contact you if it needs more information

Have ready

  • The Van Neste Foundation application form, completed
  • For CICs, a letter from a solicitor confirming that any grant will be used for a charitable purpose

the application form download link on the Application Process page currently returns the Foundation's 'Page not found' page. The upload facility on the same page still works, so ask the Foundation for a copy of the form if the download fails.

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