The Open Grants Programme from the Clothworker’s Foundation is a rolling programme that aims to improve the lives of disadvantaged people and communities.

The Foundation provides small (under £10k) and large (over £10k) capital grants to organisations, particularly those with beneficiaries that face disadvantage, deprivation, and/or discrimination. This could be for:

• Buildings: purchase, construction, renovation or refurbishment.
• Fittings, Fixtures, and Equipment: this includes but is not limited to office equipment/furniture, sports/gym equipment, digital/audio visual equipment, garden equipment, specialist therapeutic (excluding medical) equipment. It does not include equipment for one-off use, or which will be given to service users for personal use on a permanent basis.
• Vehicles: This includes a minibus, car, caravan, people-carrier, or 4X4. They are unlikely to fund the total cost of a new vehicle and do not provide grants towards vehicle leasing.

The criteria for the capital funding has always included digital infrastructure but has been updated to include digital infrastructure, such as databases and websites. Examples of eligible projects include:

• Initial database / CRM set-up costs e.g. consultancy costs for customisation, initial training and support costs
• Costs to upgrade or refresh an existing database
• Database integration / integration across databases and other digital software used

An online Q&A and information webinar is being held on 7 December 2023, 10am – 11am.

They have nine programme areas, as below:

• Alcohol and substance misuse
• Disadvantaged minority communities
• Disadvantaged young people
• Domestic and sexual abuse Homelessness
• Older people
• People with disabilities
• Prisoners and Ex-offenders
• Visual Impairment  

There is no deadline for applications. They are assessed as they are received and they aim to make decisions within eight weeks for small grants or within six months for large grants.

To find out more, visit The Clothworkers’ Foundation website.