The Foundation was established in 1971 by the late Sir John Ellerman. It is a generalist grant-making trust distributing over £4 million each year. The Foundation aims to support a broad cross-section of national charities doing work in the following five categories (please see the detailed guidelines for each category):

Health and Disability

Social Welfare

Arts and Heritage

Conservation
(UK and/or International)

Overseas
(jointly with the Baring Foundation. Applicants see www.baringfoundation.org.uk)

We know core funding is difficult to obtain and are especially open to receiving applications for this purpose. Charities which receive core funding will be expected to account for expenditure and identify what it has enabled them to do. On the other hand, requests for a contribution to capital appeals are not encouraged. We also incline towards supporting charities which:

• Offer direct practical benefits rather than work mainly on policy or campaigning
• Attract and involve large numbers of volunteers
• Co-operate closely with other charities working in similar or related fields
• Do innovatory work
• Are small/medium sized (annual income more than £100,000 and less than £25million)

The Foundation will only consider applications from registered and exempt charities with a UK office. Most of our grants are for one and two years, but we will give grants for three years if a very strong case is made. Our minimum grant is £10,000. We aim to develop relationships with funded charities.

We will only support charities that work - or have reach and impact - across England/UK. Those operating within a single locality, city, borough, county or region will not be considered. We believe other trusts and funders are better placed to help individuals and local or regional charities. For this reason also, applications operating exclusively in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland will NOT be considered.

Because of the volume of appeals which we receive, the Trustees do not consider further requests from charities which have had an application turned down until at least two years have elapsed since the letter of rejection. Similarly, funded charities can expect to wait two years from the last grant payment before a further application will be considered by Trustees. A cathedral awarded a grant, is not eligible to reapply for for funding for five years.