The Henry Smith Charity is one of the oldest leading independent grant-makers in the UK, having been founded in 1628. It’s Holiday Grants for Children grant programme is designed to provide children aged 13 years or younger who are disadvantaged, disabled or from areas of high deprivation, with a recreational holiday or outing they would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience. This could be, for example, a day trip or a longer residential of up to 7 days in a countryside or city location, as long as it is outside of the children’s immediate locality and experience. The programme regularly funds trips to the seaside, camping expeditions or visits to adventure activity centres. Trips should focus on enabling children to have fun rather than be for educational purposes.
The Henry Smith Charity has a specific interest in supporting applications benefiting children living in the 20% most deprived areas of the country according to the National Indices of Deprivation. A map showing the Indices of Multiple Deprivation can be found at this LINK.
Registered charities, youth groups, not-for-profit organisations and schools across the UK may apply for a one-off grant of between £500 and £2,750. Grant awards are normally limited to a maximum of 66% of the project cost up to the maximum grant figure of £2,750, so there is a 33% match funding requirement for this scheme.
Funding is not available for:
o Museum, cultural or theatre trips to meet curriculum requirements.
o Organisations that provide children's holidays.
o Organisations with an income of expenditure of over £2 million (unless a school).
o The running costs of play or holiday schemes - this includes funding towards a range of non-specific trips or activities.
o Trips for children over the age of 13 years.
o Trips for families.
o Trips for individual children.
o Trips outside of the UK.
o Trips that have already taken place.
o Trips with a focus on education rather than fun, or
o Trips to theme parks or similar high cost attractions.
Further information, guidance and an online application form is available on the Charity’s website.
Application deadlines for 2023 are:
o Friday 19th May 2023 for trips taking place 1st April and 30th June 2023.
o Friday 18th August 2023 for trips taking place between 1st July and 30 th September 2023.
o Friday 17th November 2023 for trips taking place between 1st October and 31st December 2023.
The next deadline for applications is therefore Friday 19th May 2023.
Please note that grants are awarded on a “first come” basis until the available budget in each round has been fully allocated. Early application is therefore advised.
