Charity Registration Number 263207

 

Guidelines for Applicants

 

Purpose of The Foundation

The Foundation was established by the late Sir John Reeves Ellerman in 1971. It is a general grantmaking trust distributing around £4 million each year. The Foundation aims to support a broad cross-section of national charities doing work of practical significance in the following 4 categories:

·        Medical and Disability (including preventive medicine, organisations tackling specific medical conditions, care and support, physical and learning disability, mental illness).

·        Community Development and Social Welfare (including children, youth work, substance abuse, housing and homelessness, disadvantaged people and communities).

·        Arts (the performing and visual arts, historic buildings and museums).

·        Conservation (of the natural environment).

The Foundation is working towards making fewer but larger grants, and towards developing partnerships with funded charities. Only charities with a UK office will be considered. While recognising the value of small grants to local organisations, the Foundation's view is that other trusts have better specialist knowledge and are generally much better placed to provide this. For this reason:

Applications from individuals and local charities will NOT be considered.

Applications are invited from charities working throughout the UK, or throughout England.

Our resources allow us to give significant grants, which we hope will enable charities to make a difference to the people they serve. Therefore our minimum grant is £10,000, and the average grant is higher. We have an additional interest in supporting innovatory work and co-operation between charities. We are aware that core funding is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, and we are 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. Requests for a contribution to large capital appeals are not encouraged.

The Foundation does not in general support overseas work but, for historical reasons, will consider applications from UK based organisations working in Southern Africa. It also continues to support organisations in South Africa with which it has a long established relationship.

Exclusions

Grants are made only to registered charities, and are not made for any of the following:

 

For or on behalf of individuals

Individual hospices

Local charities, or local branches of national organisations

‘Friends of’ groups

Education or educational establishments    

Medical research

Religious causes

Conferences and seminars

Sports and leisure facilities

Purchase of vehicles

The direct replacement of public funding, or deficit funding

Animal welfare

 

Because of the sheer volume of appeals which we receive, the Trustees have decided not to 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 charities which have just been funded can expect to wait two years before a further application will be considered by Trustees.

 

 

How to apply

Introduction

Like most other Foundations, we receive many more applications than we can possibly fund. On average, only 1 in 10 of all appeals within our guidelines is successful. We recognise that preparing good applications places heavy demands on the time and resources of charities, and diverts energies from their ultimate purpose. We therefore have a two-stage application process.

Stage 1

The first stage is to read our Guidelines for Applicants and ensure that you are eligible to apply, and do not appear in the list of exclusions. Then, please write a letter – no more than one or two sides of A4. This should tell us:

·        About your charity – when registered, what you do, who your beneficiaries are and where you work.

·        About your need for funding – your turnover, main sources of income, why you need funds now, and, if you are requesting funds for a particular project, rough costings.

All letters are studied by the Appeals Manager and at least one Trustee who recommend whether your proposal is of sufficient merit to be brought to the attention of the full Board. If not we will tell you at this stage, rather than ask you to complete an application form. Please note that we do not reply to circulars.

Stage 2

If your proposal is judged to be of sufficient interest to the full Board, we will send you an application form. You should return this to us within one month and enclose with it a copy of your latest annual report and audited accounts. We do not have specific deadlines for applications, as our Trustees meet regularly throughout the year. (The application form is also available on request in electronic format; however we do ask you to post us a printed version when applying.)

We may ask for additional information, or clarification of some points. As a matter of routine staff and/or Trustees try to visit as many applicants as possible. Your application will then be considered at the next available Board meeting. These take place every two months. We will write to you as soon as possible after that.

Correspondence

Correspondence should be sent to:

The Appeals Manager

The John Ellerman Foundation

Aria House

23 Craven Street

London WC2N 5NS

Tel: 020 7930 8566 (general) 020 7451 1471 (direct)

Fax: 020 7839 3654 email: eileen@ellerman.org.uk

We are always happy to discuss potential applications by telephone. Before calling us, please ensure that you have read our Guidelines for Applicants and are eligible to apply.

 

 

The Foundation's Grantmaking 2001-2002

The Foundation awarded 173 grants totalling £4.5 million in 2001/2002, compared with 199 grants totalling £4.2 million in the previous year. This matches the Trustees' intention of making fewer but larger grants; the average grant for the year was £26,000. Grants were made for core funding as well as projects. This is in recognition of the fact that , for many charities, it is the day to day running costs that can prove the biggest fundraising challenge.

Of the £4.5 million donated, the breakdown was as follows:

Category

Budgeted Strategy (%)

Outcome (%)

Arts

15

15

Community & Social Welfare

30

33

Conservation

10

9

Medical & Disability

45

43

 

 

 

 

100

100

Categories and percentages are kept under regular review. Over the last few years the Arts budget in particular has been consistently over-subscribed; only first class applications from major institutions now stand any realistic chance of success.

Contacts
Tim Glass, Director (tim@ellerman.org.uk)
Eileen Terry, Appeals Manager (eileen@ellerman.org.uk)
Patricia Yearley, Finance Manager (patricia@ellerman.org.uk)
Sheila Horton, Office Manager (sah@ellerman.org.uk)
Carol Goble, Administrative Assistant (carol@ellerman.org.uk)

Annual Report 2001/2002

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