Who can apply?
Applicants must be not-for-profit organisations. This includes properly constituted voluntary or community groups, registered charities or social enterprises. More guidance on this can be found here. The work of your organisation must be benefiting Lambeth residents or if you do not yet work in Lambeth, you should be keen to replicate in Lambeth projects that have been successful elsewhere with our target groups. If you are considering applying for work in schools, please refer to the schools-based projects guidance.
The Walcot Foundation is a Living Wage Funder and we seek to ensure that all posts which are wholly or partially funded by us pay the Living Wage, unless there are particular reasons for this not to happen. Organisations do not need to be registered Living Wage employers to apply to the Foundation but we do encourage organisations to consider whether this is a possibility for them.
Grant size
We offer revenue grants up to £25,000 per year for up to three years. The Foundation will consider providing up to 100% of reasonable project costs and encourage full cost recovery as part of the project budget. A project is considered more favourably if the applicant organisation can make a contribution, either from its own resources or from funds raised elsewhere.
Types of projects
We exist exclusively for the benefit of Lambeth individuals from low-income households. Our grants to organisations and schools are solely a means of reaching those individuals. Our grants are targeted at specific individuals or groups of individuals that meet our criteria as opposed to, for example, whole-school or whole-community projects.
We are interested in applications that provide opportunities for Lambeth residents who face entrenched financial poverty (as opposed to those who have temporarily fallen on hard times) to improve their circumstances and ultimately achieve financial independence. We are interested in receiving applications from projects that fit at least one of our current five Governor Priorities (below).
Top Priorities
4. To address student (re-)engagement with school, particularly in transition years and for students at risk of exclusion.
5. Early intervention projects that address the mental health needs of our target pupil groups where it is clear they cannot be funded by school or state.
The capacity to track your clients/service users over time (even after they have left the project) is a 'plus', as is the possibility of working intensively with a particular client group. We generally expect successful applicants to be able to trace our grants to specific individuals – Lambeth residents demonstrably facing financial poverty - and to understand how the funded service or intervention has enabled them to move forward along the path towards financial self-sufficiency (or not). We require all organisations to verify that those clients/service users benefiting from our grant are Lambeth residents who meet our financial eligibility criteria. We'll be glad to talk with you about ways of doing this.
Safeguarding
The Foundation is fully committed to the safeguarding of groups who are vulnerable to abuse. It is our policy to require organisations we fund to have in place formal safeguarding policies and procedures and, additionally, a whistle-blowing policy and procedure. The Foundation will report any informed suspicions to the appropriate authorities without delay.
What we do NOT fund
Applicants must be not-for-profit organisations. This includes properly constituted voluntary or community groups, registered charities or social enterprises. More guidance on this can be found here. The work of your organisation must be benefiting Lambeth residents or if you do not yet work in Lambeth, you should be keen to replicate in Lambeth projects that have been successful elsewhere with our target groups. If you are considering applying for work in schools, please refer to the schools-based projects guidance.
The Walcot Foundation is a Living Wage Funder and we seek to ensure that all posts which are wholly or partially funded by us pay the Living Wage, unless there are particular reasons for this not to happen. Organisations do not need to be registered Living Wage employers to apply to the Foundation but we do encourage organisations to consider whether this is a possibility for them.
Grant size
We offer revenue grants up to £25,000 per year for up to three years. The Foundation will consider providing up to 100% of reasonable project costs and encourage full cost recovery as part of the project budget. A project is considered more favourably if the applicant organisation can make a contribution, either from its own resources or from funds raised elsewhere.
Types of projects
We exist exclusively for the benefit of Lambeth individuals from low-income households. Our grants to organisations and schools are solely a means of reaching those individuals. Our grants are targeted at specific individuals or groups of individuals that meet our criteria as opposed to, for example, whole-school or whole-community projects.
We are interested in applications that provide opportunities for Lambeth residents who face entrenched financial poverty (as opposed to those who have temporarily fallen on hard times) to improve their circumstances and ultimately achieve financial independence. We are interested in receiving applications from projects that fit at least one of our current five Governor Priorities (below).
Top Priorities
- Directly support for the academic achievement of pupils, particularly projects that will help close the attainment gap between pupil premium pupils and their peers.
- Support young people (under 30) into employment – priority will go to projects that are able to offer routes into secure employment at London Living Wage level and/or working with young people who are furthest from the labour market.
- Maximising access to free, independent advice from accredited sources, particularly in the fields of debt, housing and employment.
4. To address student (re-)engagement with school, particularly in transition years and for students at risk of exclusion.
5. Early intervention projects that address the mental health needs of our target pupil groups where it is clear they cannot be funded by school or state.
The capacity to track your clients/service users over time (even after they have left the project) is a 'plus', as is the possibility of working intensively with a particular client group. We generally expect successful applicants to be able to trace our grants to specific individuals – Lambeth residents demonstrably facing financial poverty - and to understand how the funded service or intervention has enabled them to move forward along the path towards financial self-sufficiency (or not). We require all organisations to verify that those clients/service users benefiting from our grant are Lambeth residents who meet our financial eligibility criteria. We'll be glad to talk with you about ways of doing this.
Safeguarding
The Foundation is fully committed to the safeguarding of groups who are vulnerable to abuse. It is our policy to require organisations we fund to have in place formal safeguarding policies and procedures and, additionally, a whistle-blowing policy and procedure. The Foundation will report any informed suspicions to the appropriate authorities without delay.
What we do NOT fund
- anything which in our view is the responsibility of central or local government, or of schools themselves
- organisations that cannot show they are working with Lambeth residents who are in financial need
- debt repayments
- capital projects
- crisis funding to solve an organisation's financial problems