February Grants List

We have been delighted to welcome our new Grants Manager, Rhea Patel, to the Trust. In this blog, Rhea reflects on her first months at the Trust and our February grantee list.

I’m in my third month at The Dulverton Trust and having just returned from two weeks away from the office, I’ve found myself reflecting on the path that led me here and what I’ve learnt during these first few months.

Earlier in my career, I worked in employer branding – helping organisations market themselves to the world. However, I found myself constantly searching for purpose-led projects in a field that didn’t naturally prioritise them. I eventually realised I didn’t want to help organisations look better from the outside; I wanted to be part of organisations striving to be better for themselves and the communities they serve.

This led me to On Purpose, a leadership programme for those transitioning into the impact sector. Following stints in the government’s volunteering strategy team and NatWest’s social lending charity, one thing became clear: in an increasingly fragmented world, philanthropy is more vital than ever.

That realisation drove me to work on both sides of the funding landscape: building a charitable intervention for girls in rural Tanzania whilst simultaneously learning from a long-standing, well-respected funder by joining the team here at The Dulverton Trust.

In supporting the Trust’s end-to-end grant process, I’ve come to see that whilst the sector is never short of ambition and passion (it’s why most of us are here), this alone isn’t always enough. Impact requires strong foundations: the right people guiding a mission, partners who truly understand you, rigorous scenario planning, and the courage to change course when needed. This applies to both sides of the funding landscape – for those awarding grants and those delivering work. I appreciate that in this tricky climate, that’s much easier said than done. But if we’re all trying to incrementally improve ourselves and the ripple effects we have on others – that’s a strong start. That’s why we seek feedback from all who’ve interacted with the Trust via our anonymous feedback form and have, this year, introduced a light-touch post-application feedback form to understand more about what charities think of our process. We look forward to sharing insights from these later in the year!

With that in mind, we’re pleased to share that at our February Board meeting, we awarded £397,000 in grants to 10 charities through our main grants programme. Congratulations to our charity partners – we’re excited to be playing a small part in the difference you’re making to your communities.

• Fields in Trust
• Causeway Education
• CoachBright
• Empire Fighting Chance
• Tech She Can
• The Brilliant Club
• Prison Reform Trust
• Sussex Heritage Trust
• The TC Foundation
• Peeple

We have published the list of grants here and you can search the new grants using 360Giving’s Grantnav website here.

Our next round of grants will be made in June 2026.