Apply

To be eligible, your organisation will:

• Have a mission, aims and objectives aligned with one of our four priority areas. This must be either the sole focus, or the majority of your work and we are unlikely to fund organisations with a broader remit. If your work is broader, please contact us before applying.
  
• Be registered as a UK charity, delivering work in the UK
• Have an annual income between £150k and £1.5m (this applies to the most recent signed accounts and the two subsequent financial years - this would include draft figures and forecasts). See our FAQs for more detail
  
• Have operated for at least a year and be able to provide a full year’s audited or independently examined accounts.

We do not fund:

• Individuals
• The promotion of religion
• Capital appeals
• Academic research
• Charities working outside the UK

For more information on the charities and work that we have funded in the past is available on this page.

The A B Charitable Trust supports organisations which work to protect the human rights framework in the UK. Activities could include campaigning, advocacy and influencing, legal, and narrative change work, but this must cover the framework as a whole.

Human rights are a broad and constantly evolving concept, but by the human rights framework, we mean the rights contained in the principal international human rights instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent United Nations conventions and declarations; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Our funding through this priority area will not include single issue or single right campaigning work (e.g. work around freedom of expression), or human rights work focused on particular groups or communities (e.g. organisations supporting the human rights of women).

Some examples of work we might support under this priority, include organisations that:

• Focus on advocacy and campaigning around human rights legislation and application in the UK;
• Undertake legal representation and litigation for victims of human rights abuses;
• Support individuals, communities and statutory bodies to understand their human rights.

By exception, we also support organisations that support an enabling environment for human rights. This is a small proportion of our grants and very narrowly defined. Please contact us if you want to apply under the ‘enabling environment’ strand of this priority.

We consider a range of factors when making decisions. This includes looking at the organisation as a whole, the approach it takes and how it operates, as well as the activities being delivered.

1. Application form

Basic information about your organisation, finances and your request for funding through a four-page application form (the questions can be reviewed in our guidance).

2. Other documents

a. A Word/ PDF document of 2 to 2 ½ pages to tell us about your work.

As you can see on our website, A B Charitable Trust usually provides unrestricted funding. We are happy for you to draw on material you may already have when you prepare this document, for example the narrative in your annual accounts, the text on your website, or funding proposals you may have worked on recently. You don’t have to create something new for us. We find it useful to know your background; aims and objectives; activities and achievements; the individuals/ groups who you work with; as well as your organisation’s values and approach. If you are applying for unrestricted funding, there is no need to include a budget outlining how you propose to spend the grant.

If you would like to apply for restricted/ project funding, please describe the project and provide a project budget. The budget can be in addition to your 2 page document. Please see our FAQ’s for further details on what we are likely to fund.

If you have been invited to submit a proposal for a special initiative or anchor grant, you may exceed the two-page maximum for your proposal. Your Grants Manager can provide more details.

Please note we only accept complete applications submitted through our online application form.

Following your application, we will contact you directly if we require any further information, which may include a phone call as part of the assessment.

b. Financial information including most recent audited/ examined financial accounts, current financial year figures, and projection (if your financial year is ending within the next 4 months).

c. A copy of your governing document/ constitution, and your safeguarding policy.