FAQ

We support charities and CIOs with a national reach that meet our eligibility, carry out work within our categories and score high on our criteria for prioritisation (see below).

We don’t fund work primarily for the benefit of residents of London or Northern Ireland.

The best way to understand our eligibility is to complete our quiz, which includes explanations of our restrictions.

You can also see grants we have made here and on the grantnav website.

In our assessments, the character of a charity is as important to us as whether it delivers work in our priority areas. We prioritise appeals for work that falls within our categories from charities that:

• have a national reach, normally meaning they operate from more than one location in more than one region;
• are agile. For this reason, we prioritise charities that are medium-sized (with income between £200,000 and £3m);
• are independent. For this reason we do not fund charities that receive a substantial proportion of income from government or local authority contracts;
• adapt and evolve to ensure that the work they deliver is high quality, needed and represents value for money. Grantees will involve stakeholders in the design of their programmes. They cross-reference feedback with quantitative data, such as school attendance or attainment (if applicable);
• make a credible case for achieving the outcomes intended (taking into account the charity’s track-record and learning and evaluation processes);
• are well run, with sound governance, safeguarding and financial management. Staff are motivated and fairly remunerated;
• demonstrate that they work effectively in the ecosystem.

The Trust’s staff carry out assessments and shortlist the appeals that best meet the above priorities for consideration by the Board. The Board awards all grants.

The charities we fund tend to work with children in receipt of Free School Meals or Pupil Premium funding, or live in geographies that sit in the 20% most deprived on the IMD scale.

We prioritise charities which work across England, Scotland and Wales, or across the UK. If not working nationally, we prioritise organisations delivering their work across at least two regions in England (by region, we mean the North West, North East, Yorkshire, West Midlands, East Midlands, East of England, South East and South West). In Scotland and Wales, we prioritise charities with national reach. We also accept applications from charities working across the UK.

Unfortunately, charities working from one site or within one Local Authority area are extremely unlikely to receive funding.

In our Youth Opportunities category, we generally define ‘young person’ as someone aged 25 or under. However, many of the activities eligible for funding under Youth Opportunities (for example, mentoring, skills development or providing access to training) are also eligible for consideration under General Welfare if reaching older groups. If your application is for work which is primarily targeted at people aged 26 and over, we would recommend applying under our General Welfare category.

The endowment

The Dulverton Trust was founded in 1949 by Sir Gilbert Alan Hamilton Wills, the 1st Lord Dulverton, who endowed the Trust with a donation of over £2 million.

The endowment was invested in stocks, property and more recently, private equity, as well as other standard types of investment. Family members have also periodically added to the endowment.  This has enabled the Trust to donate over £100m in grants while growing the endowment to over £100m.

The endowment has thus received differing contributions from varied sources following Lord Dulverton’s founding donation.  Lord Dulverton’s own fortune had come mainly through the family’s business W.D. & H.O. Wills Tobacco.  There has been recent and independent research into the family business, which can be found here (see pages 15-18).

Investments

Today, the returns from investments of the endowment drive the Trust’s grant making.

The Trust’s investments aim is to preserve the real value of the endowment over the long-term while maximising grant giving, at the same time as making sure the investments are consistent with the purpose of the Trust.

To ensure that the Trust’s investments meet this standard, the Finance Committee reviews (at least annually) the environmental, social and governance practices of the investment managers. The Trust can (and has) divested from managers where there are concerns this standard is not being met.

The Trust’s investment managers are currently Sarasin and Partners, Oxford University Endowment Management and Royal London Asset Management.

More information about the Trust’s investment policy and asset allocation can be found in our Annual Report and Accounts, here.

The first step in applying is usually to fill out our eligibility quiz. If you are eligible, you will be provided with a link to our Expression of Interest form. Please complete this, and we will be in touch (see ‘what to expect’, below). You can download the questions asked here.

*If you have any accessibility issues using this method to apply, or you would like us to consider accepting an appeal prepared for another funder, please contact us to discuss.

The Trust receives many more eligible appeals than it can fund. We regularly refine our guidelines and eligibility, but unfortunately at present, around six in seven eligible appeals are unsuccessful. See above for more information about how we prioritise.

Once we have your Expression of Interest form and we can see your application is eligible, we will conduct extensive desk-based research. We will likely ask for further financial and impact measurement information. This stage normally takes 2-3 weeks.

The staff team will review your application alongside others in the pipeline. Our review will vary depending on the nature of the work, but will prioritise those that fit most closely with the Trust’s funding categories and score well against our criteria for prioritisation (see above).

If we decide to take the application forward to the Sub-Committee, we will be in touch to arrange a visit or online meeting. If we decide not to take the application forward, we let you know as soon as possible and will endeavour to provide feedback. This decision is made by the staff team – although Trustees are often consulted and all declined applications are ratified by the full Board.

A few weeks before each Board meeting, a Sub-Committee of Trustees meets to discuss the appeals that have been visited by staff and decide which to take forward to the Board meetings. This decision is based on a consideration of the staff team’s recommendation.

We let all applicants know the outcome of their appeal via email, including those that are unsuccessful. If you haven’t heard from us after one month, please check you spam/junk folder, as occasionally emails sent via our CRM are caught in spam filters. Otherwise, please feel welcome to telephone the office to ask or an update.

If you are awarded a grant, we will let you know shortly following the Board meetings in February, June and November. You will be asked for information so that we can make a payment to you. Once this information has been received, it usually takes around two-three weeks for the payment to be made. Once a payment has been made, we aim to be in touch when we can be helpful. We ask for a formal report when the funding has been expended (normally 12 months following each payment).

For likely timescales, see below.

No, we accept applications on a rolling basis. Our Trustee meetings, where grants are awarded, are in February, June and November.

We recommend applying at least 3 months in advance of the meeting at which you want your application to be considered. If your application is not being taken forward to the Trustee meeting we try to inform you as soon as possible: we aim to do this within a month of receiving the application.

We aim to process appeals as efficiently as possible. Unsuccessful appeals are normally notified within one month of the application.

Successful applications are normally notified within three months of the application (although this depends how close it was received to our Board meetings, where grants are awarded, which are in February, June and November).

We are always happy to answer specific questions if you cannot find the information you need on our website or in our accounts. However, we are unfortunately not able to offer detailed reviews of potential applications.

This is in the interests of being as consistent as possible: we have processes in place to try to ensure that each appeal is assessed on its own merits, and that applicants that have a connection to staff or Trustees are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged. Discussing an application with the team in advance of submission does not increase the chances of success.

No. You can apply to us via our simple Expression of Interest form without having had any previous contact with the Trust. You are welcome to contact us at grants@dulverton.org or via our office telephone number prior to submitting an appeal if you have any specific questions that you have not been able to answer from our website or accounts.

We advise applicants to apply for what they need, however as a guide, our average grant is between £30,000-£40,000 per year.

For charities we have already funded, we offer funding for up to three years.

For charities which are new to us, we offer one year of funding initially. We are happy to discuss further funding once the end of grant report has been submitted.

We generally pay out grants within two-three weeks of a decision being made at our Board meetings.

As a medium-sized funder, we know that we’re usually one of many funders a charity needs to manage. With this in mind, we try to be light-touch in our reporting (see below). That said, we also try to make helpful links to other charities and pro-bono support.

We do not insist on a gap between applications from the same charity, however if planning to reapply after receiving a grant, please ensure you submit your final report first.

We do not normally accept applications within a year of a grant payment from us. However, we will consider making an exception, provided: all of our funding has been expended (if it hasn’t all been expended, we could potentially consider a change of grant use rather than a new application); the need is time sensitive e.g. the work has to be done asap to have the desired impact, or the charity is in urgent financial need; and we are assured on the quality of the work.

It is worth being aware that in these circumstances, we are likely to ask for financial documents at the first stage, such as management accounts. This is so that we can understand the financial position of the charity. We are also likely to ask to shadow delivery or speak to other funders, if we don’t know your work well.

Grantees are notified of reporting requirements in their grant award email. Usually, we ask grantees to report using our online form when the funding has been expended. However, we are also happy to accept reports prepared for other funders provided they cover the same purpose and grant period.

Grantees are asked to agree to our Terms and Conditions and keep us informed if there are significant issues or changes at the charity or in the funded work.

We do not have any specific branding requirements.

If you would like to use our logo, please contact grants@dulverton.com.

Unfortunately, this is not something we are able to do. We receive many requests from charities in our network for introductions to other Trusts and Foundations and unfortunately cannot accommodate them all. In the interests of fairness and to be as consistent as possible, we therefore are not able to make introductions.

We do not have a compulsory waiting period after an unsuccessful application and charities can reapply at any time. However, if you have been declined due to being marginal to our Trustees’ priorities (for example, working locally or in a thematic area which isn’t a focus for the Trust) the chances of success with a second application soon after the first are unfortunately low. If you think the context has changed, we would encourage you to phone the office prior to submitting another application.

We welcome feedback or comments from unsuccessful applicants about their experience. To facilitate this, we operate a feedback process, as set out below.

If you would like to speak to a member of the team about the decision made or the application process itself in more detail, please contact grants@dulverton.com. All feedback is acted upon according to our internal feedback process.

It might be helpful to note that all applications – including those that are unsuccessful – are discussed at our weekly team meetings and reviewed closely by the Director. All decisions on the outcome of applications are ratified by the Trustee Board. Therefore applicants can be assured that all levels of the Trust has sight of every application.

We are always interested in hearing from organisations and individuals who have interacted with The Dulverton Trust and we are currently seeking feedback on our processes via a short anonymous survey. We are particularly interested in areas where those who have interacted with us think we could improve. ​We review the feedback on a weekly basis and use it to inform changes to our processes. You can find our survey here.

It is possible to use this form to make a complaint. If you would like this to be responded to, please complete the field asking for your email address.

We recommend using 360Giving’s Grantnav website to search for funders that may support your work.

There are also a number of charities that provide free-of-charge support to charities, including:

• The Cranfield Trust’s network of over 1,200 highly skilled volunteers from the commercial sector shares knowledge and experience with charities by providing independent advice and support on everything from business planning, to charity governance, and financial management. Learn more here.
• Reach Volunteering supports charities throughout the UK to recruit trustees and skilled volunteers to join their boards or to take on operational roles in marketing, finance, strategy, communications, HR, business development, digital and IT. The service is free of charge, although a contribution to costs is requested if you are recruiting trustees and the charity’s income exceeds £1 million. For more information, see https://reachvolunteering.org.uk/im-an-organisation.
• The Media Trust’s Volunteer Platform makes it quicker and easier for charities and community groups to recruit and secure skilled volunteers from across the Media and Creative industry to review a press release, develop marketing strategies, create social media plans and campaigns or produce a film or logo. If you have any questions, please get in touch through their website.
• The Ethical Property Foundation provides a free property advice service and can help with leasing premises, relocating, buying or selling premises, property management and improving and developing premises. If you have any questions, please get in touch through their website.
• LandAid offers a free property advice programme and can arrange for skilled property professionals from their network of supporters to give free property expertise to UK not-for profit organisations supporting disadvantaged young people, families and communities, including those experiencing homelessness. If you have any questions, please get in touch through their website.

Salesforce is one of the leading cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. The Salesforce Foundation offers all charities and not for profit organisations up to 10 free licences together with a heavily discounted rate on further licences.

The Dulverton Trust has developed a customised version of the Salesforce CRM platform intended for managing the grant-making cycle. This was previously available via the Salesforce Appexchange.

Unfortunately, the Trust is no longer able to support accessing the Dulverton App.