The Garfield Weston Foundation is a family-founded, charitable grant-making foundation. Privately funded, it supports a wide range of charities across the UK, from small community groups to large national institutions. The Foundation, which accepts applications all year round, aims to support organisations with effective solutions to helping those most in need.

The Foundation’s key areas of support are:

o Arts - support for a wide range of organisations from small community theatre groups to national arts galleries that engage with a variety of audiences and can demonstrate their impact and quality.
o Community - a large volume of grants are made every year to community projects, many of which rely on the time and goodwill of volunteers. The majority of projects tend to be relatively small compared to other categories due to their local grassroots nature, and the grants made tend to be smaller in comparison. Typical projects supported include revenue grants for volunteering schemes and capital grants for the restoration of village halls and community centres and for facilities to support community life.
o Education - grants to support education, from small local projects such as reading schemes and after school clubs, to major institutions such as universities.
o Environment - grants to support a range of environment projects ranging from organisations that raise public awareness of, and find solutions to, specific issues such as sustainable fishing, in addition to charities that undertake active conservation work.
o Faith - grants to support simple but practical projects that enable religious buildings to be used for an inclusive range of charitable purposes by their local community. Capital grants include funds towards the installation of basic amenities such as toilets and kitchen facilities and for restoration works to historic church buildings.
o Health - grants range from specialist care homes and hospices, charities specialising in the treatment and support for specific illnesses, to translational research focusing on medical breakthroughs that will benefit current and future generations.
o Museums, Galleries and Heritage - grants to support organisations that conserve and interpret the nation’s heritage for future generations, ensuring it is accessible and available to all.
o Welfare - grants for charities that work with a variety of causes and groups including the elderly, homeless, disabled and special needs, and those in the criminal justice system. Grants made reflect a charity’s size and the nature of the work or project being undertaken, and
o Youth - grants for charities that consistently demonstrate the commitment of volunteers and professionals across the country to support and inspire young people to achieve their potential. This includes small local organisations, such as uniformed groups and youth clubs, to larger national youth development charities.

The following grants are available for revenue, project and capital projects, usually over a 12-month period (although this can be for up to 3 years for previous grant recipients).:

1. Regular Grants up to £100,000, and
2. Major Grants of £100,000 and over. Applicants to the Major Grants programme should have an annual income of more than £1,000,000.

Please note that the Foundation does expect applicants to have sought and secured something around 50% of matched funding towards the total cost of their project prior to applying.

During the year ended 5th April 2023, the Foundation awarded almost 2,000 grants totalling around £89 million.

The Foundation produces an excellent Annual Report, which lists all grant awards on pages 40-65.

Funding is not available for:

o Activity that takes place overseas, including overseas trips.
o Animal welfare charities.
o Campaigning, lobbying and awareness-raising activity.
o Charities that spend most of their income outside of the UK.
o Community Interest Companies (CICs).
o Endowment appeals.
o Feasibility studies.
o Individuals.
o Local Authorities, including parish and town councils.
o One-off events such as galas or festivals, even if for fundraising purposes.
o Organisations with unrestricted reserves covering more than 12 months' expenditure unless they can make an exceptionally convincing case that they are in financial need.
o Social enterprises without UK Charity Commission registration.
o Sponsorship.
o Sporting associations without UK Charity Commission registration.
o Start-up costs. Organisations that do not yet have a track record of service delivery or that have not yet produced accounts, or
o Work that does not deliver a direct benefit in the UK, even if the organisation is registered with the Charity Commission.

Application for a grant of £100,000 or under (i.e. a Regular Grant) may be made at any time and are reviewed as they arrive at the Foundation. Applicants should allow between 16 and 20 weeks for the Foundation to assess and make a decision on their application.

The application process for a Main Grant of over £100,000 is slightly different. Here, applicants (who should have an annual income of £1 million or more) should email a short summary of their project to the Grants Administrator (contact details below). The summary should include details of the project, its total cost and how much funding is being sought from the Foundation. Emails may be submitted at any time.

Further information, guidance and details about how to apply is available on the Foundation’s website.

Contact details for the Foundation are: