The Pets at Home Foundation (previously known as Support Adoption for Pets) has a couple of grant schemes open to applications at the moment:

1. Rescue Centre Grants - to support organisations whose main activities are the rescue and rehoming of UK domestic pet and the reduction of the number of domestic pets in rescue. Rescue Centre Grants can support:
o Animal food.
o Boarding fees.
o Equipment.
o Trap and neuter schemes
o Vehicles, and
o Vet bills

2. Helping People Through Pets - to support organisations whose main activities are one or both of the following:
o The provision of temporary or ongoing assistance to ensure pets can remain with their owners, where rehoming takes place only when it is not possible to reunite the pet with their owner, and/or
o Changing the lives of adults and children through the provision of animal-based activities or practical assistance.

The Foundation’s Rescue Centre Grants and Helping People Through Pets Grants provide funding for UK registered charities and not--for-profit organisations, including social enterprises and Community Interest Companies, whose main objective is to rehome UK domestic pets. Grant awards are aimed at projects that have a direct impact on the welfare of domestic animals in rescue centres.

Applicants can include national pet rescue charities or branches of national pet rescue organisations, independent pet rescue, as well as rehoming centres and fostering and boarding kennels and catteries.

Grants start at £250 with no upper limit (although awards rarely exceed £100,000). The Foundation’s website states that the largest grant it has awarded from its Rescue Centre programme was for £176,000 for a new cattery.

The Foundation regularly awards grants aggregating over £2 million annually.

A list of all grant recipients during the last two years can be found on pages 24 and 25 of the Foundation’s annual accounts.

Funding is not available for:

o Any costs associated with a charity shop.
o Education centres and programmes.
o Fundraising costs such as marketing materials.
o Further running costs unless at least 18 months has lapsed since the rescue organisation last received funding towards running costs.
o Loan or interest payments.
o Organisations that predominantly rehome pets from abroad.
o Retrospective costs.
o Salaries, uniforms or expenses.
o The cost of leasing a vehicle, road tax, insurance or petrol costs.
o The purchase of food, or
o The purchase of land or buildings.

Further information, guidance and an online application form for Rescue Centre Grants and Helping People Through Pets is available on the Foundation’s website.

The application deadline for both Rescue Centre Grants and Helping People Through Pets Grants is Friday 22nd December 2023.