The Vinehill Trust

Vinehill Trust Grants

One-off project grants, typically £10,000-£100,000, from the Vinehill Trust for UK charitable, educational and ecclesiastical organisations in three areas: music (the choral and organ traditions, especially for children and young people, and pipe organ restoration), built heritage that provides heritage craft skills training, and health (acute conditions plus yearly focus areas). Applications are accepted any time and go to the next grant round; the next guidance cut-off is 1 November 2026 for the Autumn/Winter round. The Trust funds no more than 75% of a project and wants to see audited or independently examined accounts.

Apply on the funder’s site

You could get: £10,000 – £100,000; no fixed round
Deadline: Rolling; apply any time
Effort: Moderate; full application with documents

Who can apply

Charitable, educational and ecclesiastical organisations based in the UK (Channel Islands and Isle of Man also accepted)
For health, UK-registered charities, non-profits or CICs; public sector bodies such as the NHS only in partnership with a non-profit lead
Organisations must be well governed and managed, with good finance and risk management, the skills to deliver, and be lean and focused; they must have audited or independently examined accounts (new charities or CICs should wait until these exist)
Organisations with more than twelve months' unrestricted reserves are generally excluded, as are those rejected in the last twelve months or still within a year of a previous grant ending

What it funds

Specific initiatives and projects (not unrestricted funding) in three areas. Music:

Programmes building the UK's choral tradition through sustained work with children, young people and choral leaders
Choral and organ scholarship schemes at cathedrals and churches
Youth choir or organ programmes and summer schools
Self-organised visiting choir residencies including young people
Bursaries for young people to attend recognised choral courses
Keyboard instruments and teaching materials used by young people
Repair and restoration of historically significant pipe organs in churches, cathedrals, civic buildings or concert venues, with evidence of plans to teach students to play

Heritage: historic building restoration (including distinguished 20th-century buildings, historic fixtures and fittings, curtilage structures and designed landscapes) that provides employment and training in building crafts such as stonemasonry, joinery, plasterwork, carving, leadwork, thatching, gilding and stained glass, with particular interest in less affluent areas.

Health: projects focused on healthcare delivery for acute conditions (e.g. pre-hospital care, life-saving equipment/training, suicide prevention), plus 2027 temporary focus areas - rehabilitation or aftercare for physical trauma or surgery; wellbeing through creating or enhancing green spaces and urban wildlife habitats; and oral and dental health outreach for homeless, vulnerable and rural people.

What it will not fund

Applications outside music, heritage and health
Retrospective funding
Emergency appeals
Feasibility studies
Campaigning and lobbying work
Work where there is a reasonable expectation of public funding
Projects where beneficiaries are selected by race or ethnicity, unless there is an evidenced rationale
Endowments
Organisations with more than twelve months of unrestricted reserves, unless there is a clear reason for holding them
Core running costs
More than 75% of the project cost (excluding VAT)
Individuals
Statutory bodies, unless working in partnership with a charitable body (and funds must not replace ordinary public funding)
Funding other organisations' grant programmes
Organisations based outside the UK, or projects outside the UK (Channel Islands and Isle of Man accepted)
Organisations rejected within the last twelve months
Organisations that have had a grant, until a year has passed since the end of the grant period
Music: individual singing or instrumental lessons, choir tours and recordings, private choir school fees, organs in private or residential settings, cosmetic, speculative or routine organ work
Heritage: movable heritage (e.g. steam trains, boats), crafts unconnected to building fabric, private buildings with no public access, routine repair and maintenance
Health: projects mainly about entertainment or arts, remote-only services, awareness-raising or education without direct health intervention, academic research, management salaries and general overheads, capital works not supporting a direct health intervention

How to apply

Read the general guidance on the homepage and the subject guidelines for music, heritage or health
Download the application form from the relevant subject page (organ restoration has its own form)
Email the completed form to info@vinehilltrust.uk with your latest audited or independently examined accounts (file under 10MB)
If the Trust wants to take it further it will come back with further questions
Applications are considered at the next grant round; the decision normally comes within three months

Guidance cut-offs are 1 March (Spring round), 1 July (Summer round) and 1 November (Autumn/Winter round). Health applications for the 2027 cycle are open until 30 June 2027.

No feedback is given on unsuccessful applications. Grants must be acknowledged as 'Supported by the Vinehill Trust' and reports are required.

Have ready

Completed application form
Latest audited or independently examined accounts
Organ restoration only: statement of need, statement of significance, evidence of a faculty application and an organ adviser's report, signed contract with an accredited organ builder, planning permission/faculty, BIOS Historic Organs Certificate if available, and a statement on the organ's relationship with the building

Heritage projects must show restoration methodology and the necessary permissions (e.g. planning and listed building consent) before an offer is confirmed.

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