IMPORTANT NOTICE (UPDATE): From 30th September 2023 the Southall Trust will not be accepting applications for work or projects delivered outside of the UK. Please click here for more information.
What We Support
We award grants to charities that are registered in the UK and working in at least one of the following four areas (please click on a category for more information):
The majority of our grants are for one-year. We will consider multi-year funding (up to three years), but this is typically reserved for charities that we have supported in previous years. We will consider appeals for both core and capital costs.
Generally speaking, we look most favourably upon the following:
- Projects that encourage wider support of the categories listed above
- Projects where grants of up to £5,000 will make a quantifiable difference (we prefer to support smaller charities with 'seed corn' funding)
- Grassroots initiatives
- Charities that show creativity and innovation in their work
- Charities that promote social justice, inclusion and diversity
- Charities that challenge structural inequalities and injustice
- Charities making good use of volunteers
- Charities that are engaged with their local community and show clear evidence of support from within it (e.g. through local giving, volunteering and/or partnerships)
Please note that we consider appeals from charities working overseas, so long as they are they are registered with one of the main UK charity regulators and meet the requirements outlined on this page.
What we do not support
Generally speaking, we do not consider the following:
- Charities with a primary focus that does not fit within one of our category areas
- Charities spending less than 80% of their annual expenditure on charitable activities
- Emergency appeals or applications for emergency relief work
- Private schools
- Medical charities
- Animal welfare charities
- Individuals, groups, families or organisations that are not registered with the Charity Commission of England & Wales, the Charity Commission of Northern Ireland or OSCR ( exceptions are considered for Quaker Meeting Houses and orgnisations that are charitably constituted and further the obectives of the Southall Trust.)
- Retrospective funding (i.e. funding for a project or work that has already taken place)
- Charities with a typical annual income in excess of £1m (although, exceptions are sometimes made for charities that we have funded in the past, charities with whom our trustees have a personal connection, and charities that are a particularly strong fit in our category areas and meet most of our criteria - do get in touch before applying if your charity size is larger than £1m)
- Charities that are national household names
- Charities that have not complied with Charity Commission regulations (e.g. late annual returns)
- Charities that do not have at least one set of annual accounts filed with a UK charity regulator
- Charities with a high level of free reserves and/or no clear reserves policy
- Projects that involve counselling services are often unsuccessful