[WiLT] Tudor Trust - working to achieve lasting change in communities - rolling programme

[WiL Admin]

Tudor Trust

The Tudor Trust is an independent grant-making charitable trust which
supports organisations working across the UK. We do not focus our
funding on specific themes or programmes. Instead we want to fund a
wide range of people and organisations working to achieve lasting
change in their communities. Our role is to support and enable their
visions, trusting the groups we fund to do the work that is needed.

Tudor aims to support work which addresses the social, emotional and
financial needs of people at the margins of our society. We are
interested in how organisations tackle these needs, and their root
causes. We want to encourage growth, progression and development, not
just keeping things as they are.

Although we still make grants across our established funding areas
(youth, older people, community, relationships, housing, mental
health, substance misuse, learning, financial security and criminal
justice) we are also open to hearing about work in areas we have not
funded before.

We receive many more applications than we will ever be able to fund,
so we have introduced a two-stage application process.
http://www.tudortrust.org.uk/HowTudorFunds/Howtoapply.html This is
designed to reduce the time, effort and resources organisations spend
on their first approach to us. All applicants are therefore asked to
complete a brief first-stage proposal for initial assessment.

http://www.tudortrust.org.uk/Articles/AboutTudor.html


How Tudor Funds

We know that solutions to the difficulties people face are seldom
straightforward or immediate. We are therefore interested in
encouraging people to use their own skills and abilities as a resource
for change; to find new ways of tackling deep-rooted problems or to
cope with and move on from difficult situations. We recognise that
this may take time so, if appropriate, we can commit funding over a
sustained period.

As an independent grant maker, an important part of our role is to
support work which is untried, which has uncertain outcomes and which
may be difficult to fund. However, we are not preoccupied with
innovation and understand that there is a place for well-founded,
practical work which seeks to bring normality and wellbeing into
difficult places and situations.

We are most interested in helping smaller, under-resourced
organisations which offer direct services and which involve the people
they work with in their planning. The groups we fund don't have to be
registered charities; we can also make grants to other groups as long
as they have established charitable objectives.

We want to fund effective people who work to high standards. We
recognise that their organisations are best placed to know what the
problems are and what to do about them. We trust these groups to go
ahead and do the work that is needed, and want to give them the
opportunity and practical tools to do so. We want to respond to ideas
and energy. We don't have specific funding programmes designed to
advance a particular agenda. Instead, we try to support work which is
clearly needed and for which funding from Tudor can make all the
difference.

Tudor aims to be a helpful and flexible funder and we want to respond
imaginatively to organisations' real concerns and priorities.
Organisations dealing with complex issues are seldom themselves
straightforward and so we hope to engage with the groups we support in
a variety of ways, offering grants, loans, advice and development
support. There is no maximum or minimum grant amount. Grants can take
the form of core funding (including salaries and running costs),
development funding, project grants or capital grants for buildings or
equipment. As we want to fund work which engages with the reality and
complexity of people and their problems, we look to support
organisations working across sectors and boundaries (whether actual or
perceived).

We usually make grants over one, two or three years but may work
alongside organisations for a longer period. However as we are keen to
support a range of organisations, including those which are new to us,
our funding cannot continue indefinitely.

We want to offer high levels of support and engagement when this will
be helpful and appropriate. Our two-stage application process gives us
more time to focus on working creatively with applicants who reach the
second stage. Through constructive dialogue and increased
understanding we hope to give applicants the opportunity to think
about their options and develop proposals which focus on the real
needs of their organisations, and the people they are working with.

http://www.tudortrust.org.uk/Articles/HowTudorfunds.html


What we are looking for when we make grants

Tudor's focus is on smaller groups, led by people of vision, which are
committed to growth, progression and development. Some of the other
characteristics we are looking for when we make grants include:
* Organisations which are embedded in and have developed out of their
community - whether the local area or a 'community of interest'
* Organisations providing direct services to marginalised people
* A focus on building stronger communities by overcoming isolation and
fragmentation and encouraging inclusion, connection and integration
* High levels of user involvement, and an emphasis on self-help where
this is appropriate
* Work which addresses complex and multi-stranded, often difficult,
problems in unusual or imaginative ways
* Organisations and people who know what difference they want to make
and have the energy and vision to make it happen
* We can only consider making a capital grant for new premises or for
building improvements if the organisations using the building display
some of these key characteristics. Good buildings which contribute
positively to their environment are important, but we are most
interested in what goes on inside the building and the difference
building improvements would make to your work.

We are more likely to fund groups with an annual turnover of less than
£1 million.

http://www.tudortrust.org.uk/HowTudorFunds/Whatwearelookingforwhenwe.html

For full details on applying go to
http://www.tudortrust.org.uk/HowToApply/Yourfirst-stageproposal.html


Our current guidelines are dated April 2008 - March 2009

We have not made any major changes to the guidelines this year.

Please download a copy of our funding guidelines if you are
considering making an application.
http://www.tudortrust.org.uk/UsefulDocuments/Funding_Guidelines_0809.pdf