What is a grant-making trust and how do you approach one?

A grant-making trust is a charity whose purpose is to give money to other charities and causes rather than to run services itself. The UK has tens of thousands, from endowed foundations with staff and deadlines to family trusts with no website. This guide explains what trusts are, how they decide, and the four routes of approach.

What a trust is, legally and in practice

In law a grant-making trust is simply a charity. Its register entry on the Charity Commission, OSCR or Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register records what it does, who it helps and how, and for a funder the "how" says it "makes grants to organisations". The legal form behind the name varies. Many are charitable trusts governed by a trust deed, which the Commission's guidance says must specify the money or assets the charity starts with. Others are charitable companies, registered with both the Commission and Companies House, or charitable incorporated organisations, registered with the Commission only. The words trust and foundation are used interchangeably and tell you nothing about size or openness.

In practice a trust has three things that matter to an applicant: a source of money, a set of priorities and a way of deciding. The money is usually an endowment invested for income, sometimes topped up by a founding family or company. The priorities are set out in the governing document in broad terms and narrowed by the trustees in their annual report. The way of deciding ranges from a professional grants team working through an online portal to a family meeting around a kitchen table twice a year.

The four kinds of trust

Dividing trusts by how they receive applications is more useful than dividing them by size.

Programme funders publish programmes with criteria, amounts, forms and timescales, and employ staff to assess applications. Garfield Weston Foundation, which has published 18,799 grants worth £824 million to 360Giving and says it donates around £100 million a year, accepts applications all year round through its portal, with requests of £100,000 or more going through an expression of interest. Henry Smith Foundation, the operating name of The Henry Smith Charity since its 2025 to 2030 strategy, has published 8,065 grants worth £460 million and runs named programmes with their own windows. How to apply to Garfield Weston Foundation and how to apply to Henry Smith describe two programme funders in full.

Letter funders have no programme and often no website, but their trustees consider written requests as they arrive and decide at periodic meetings. This is the largest group by number and includes most family and local trusts. Their accounts are the only published guide to their giving, and how to read a grant-making trust's accounts is the companion to this guide.

Invitation funders fund only organisations they approach. The Tudor Trust, with 3,674 published grants worth £169 million, said on 26 October 2026: "We do not have a traditional, written application process." It maps organisations working towards its goals, invites them after conversations, and makes multi-year core grants from £100,000 to £1 million. An unsolicited application to an invitation funder is wasted; an introduction through a shared contact or an existing grant partner is the only route.

Closed funders give to a settled list of beneficiaries, often named in the governing document or chosen by a founding family, and do not consider new applicants at all. Their accounts show the same recipients every year.

How trusts decide

Whatever the kind, trustees ask the same questions, and a good approach answers them in order. Is the applicant eligible under our governing document and policy: the right legal form, cause, place and size? Does the work fit what we have chosen to fund this year? Is the amount in our range? Is the organisation sound: accounts filed on time, reserves explained, governance in order? And is there a reason to fund this applicant rather than the others on the table? NCVO's guidance on understanding a grant fund puts the first test bluntly: if your organisation fails the factual criteria of income, location or legal status, do not apply.

Trustees also work from what they have funded before. A trust's grants list is its real policy, which is why research into past giving, through the accounts or through 360Giving data for the trusts that publish, comes before any writing.

Finding the trusts that fit

Three sources between them cover the field. The charity registers list every trust, searchable by area and classification, and OpenGrant's funders A to Z lists every registered charity whose entry says it makes grants to organisations, more than 49,000, with the register facts on each page. Published grants data covers the 355 funders on GrantNav, including almost every large trust. And the accounts of charities like yours list the trusts that funded them, which how to find out who funds a charity explains. NCVO also points to funders' own websites, community foundations and local infrastructure bodies, and advises doing the search "when you know exactly what you want to fund".

A trust is a prospect when four things line up: its policy covers your cause and place, its grants list includes organisations like yours, its typical grant matches your request, and its route is open to you. OpenGrant's funder pages put the first three on one screen for publishing funders and the first on one screen for the rest.

The four routes of approach

Through the programme. Read the guidelines, use the form, respect the window. Programme funders publish decision times, from 16 weeks at National Lottery Awards for All England to six to eight months at Esmée Fairbairn, so apply from the date the money is needed. How to write a grant application covers the writing.

By letter. For a letter funder, send two pages at most: who you are, what you do and for whom, what you are asking for and how much, why this trust, and what the money will achieve, with your latest accounts enclosed and your charity number on the first page. Address it to the correspondent named in the accounts, time it for the meeting cycle the trustees' report describes, and do not follow up more than once.

Through a first stage. Where a trust uses an expression of interest, treat it as the application: Esmée Fairbairn reported that 5% of expressions of interest in 2025 led to a grant. State the work, the amount and the fit in the first lines.

Through an introduction. Invitation funders and many closed funders can only be reached through people. If a trustee, a current grant partner or an infrastructure body knows your work, ask them whether an introduction is appropriate. If no one does, record the trust and move on; which UK trusts accept unsolicited applications explains how to tell the invitation funders from the letter funders before you spend the time.

A worked example

A fictional community transport charity in Cumbria with income of £250,000 lists eight trusts from its peers' accounts and a GrantNav search. Two are programme funders with rolling applications and medians near its £15,000 request, so they go straight to the qualified stage of its pipeline. Three are letter funders whose accounts show grants of £2,000 to £10,000 to Cumbrian charities, with trustees meeting in March and September; letters are scheduled for February. One is the Tudor Trust, which is noted and left. Two show the same recipients every year and are dropped. Six approaches, each by the route the trust has chosen, replace eight speculative applications.

Common mistakes

Writing to a trust because its name sounds relevant, without reading its grants list. Asking for the maximum in the guidelines rather than the typical grant. Sending a programme funder a letter, or a letter funder a twelve-page proposal. Approaching an invitation funder cold. Ignoring the meeting cycle, so that a letter sits for five months. And treating a decline as final when the trustees' report says applications are welcome every two years. Each is avoided by the same fifteen minutes of research the next guide describes.