Wolfson Foundation pledges £200mn over next 5 years – & more funding news

Melanie May | 29 January 2025 | News

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• funding
• grants

A round up of funding news, including the Wolfson Foundation’s £200mn spending pledge, Independent Age’s award of over £2mn to charities supporting older women from racially minoritised groups, and Newcastle Building Society’s announcement of an extra £1mn for its Community Fund.

Independent Age awards over £2 million to charities supporting older women from racially minoritised groups

Independent Age has distributed the sum through its Older People’s Fund. The funding has gone to 18 locally based charities in England and Wales that support older women from racially minoritised groups in financial hardship. The money will help expand their work supporting older women to boost their income, cut costs, and live in safe and suitable housing.

This is the latest in a series of grants funds launched by Independent Age, which awarded over £5mn in 2024.

The organisations receiving funding from this programme include Triangular CIO and Sunderland Bangladesh International Centre in the North East; Chinese Wellbeing in the North West; African French Speaking Community Support – Smethwick in the Midlands; Women Connect First in Wales; St Pauls Advice Centre in the South West; and Subco Trust in London.

The grants are for a three-year period and range from £60,000 up to £120,000.

The Older People’s Fund is aimed at older people more likely to be in financial hardship in later life. Women and people from racially minoritised groups are at a higher risk experiencing poverty in older age. In future rounds, the Older People’s Fund will focus on organisations helping different groups at risk of poverty highlighted in the charity’s report The hidden two million. This includes private renters, carers and people with disabilities or long-term conditions.

More information here.

The Wolfson Foundation pledges to spend £200mn in funding over next five years

In its newly published Strategic Framework 2025-29, the Wolfson Foundation says that around 85% of this £200mn in funding will be for places – ‘projects that build, strengthen and sustain an organisation’s infrastructure for the longer term’ and covering new build, refurbishment and equipment projects.

Around 15% of its funding will be for people: funding ‘bursaries, scholarships and fellowships to support those working and studying in our fields of interest’. These will be delivered in partnership with organisations that have ‘relevant expertise and experience in allocating this type of funding’.

Its previous Strategic Framework period saw the foundation invest £195 million in projects – above its anticipated £150mn.

In a blog, CEO Paul Ramsbottom said the foundation had canvassed the opinions of all applicants and engaged in targeted conversations in preparing the new framework.

Through this work, the foundation had come to two clear conclusions: that a number of ‘mega-challenges’ for society across the next generation will inevitably impact its grant-making and the operations of the organisations funded, with three that are ‘especially pertinent’ to its funding: the climate emergency, inadequate mental health support, and inequalities in access to education and opportunity. Secondly, the foundation concluded that there was still a need for sources of funding that remain consistent as business models evolve.

These conclusions have been instrumental in the foundation’s decision to continue its support for research and education, and to allocate a majority of its funding to infrastructure.   

Newcastle Building Society puts extra £1mn donation into its Community Fund

The £1mn donation into the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund boosts the total value of the investment to more than £3.5mn.

The fund, which is held by the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, is expected to pay out around £150,000 each year to charities in the North East, Cumbria, and North Yorkshire that are tackling issues linked to food poverty, work and opportunity, debt management, homelessness, and sustainability.

In the past decade the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund has benefitted hundreds of charities and many thousands of people in communities served by the Society’s expanding branch network.

Based in Newcastle, Friends Action North East was recently awarded a £5,000 grant from the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund to pilot a new social interaction and workplace skills training workshop.  

The grant will fund a training officer who will work with 40 service users over the next 12 months, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to navigate social interactions at work or in education and remove barriers into employment.  

The deadline for applications for the next round of grants from the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund is 15 April 2025.

More information here.

New funding opportunities for Kent & Medway from The Rochester Bridge Trust

The Rochester Bridge Trust has been providing passage over, under or across the River Medway from medieval times to the present day. It has pledged £100,000 to be administered by Kent Community Foundation, to support charitable projects within Kent and Medway.

The Trust has pledged this funding for charitable organisations requiring financial support for projects that promote traditional crafts and skills improve the habitat or advance amateur sport on the River Medway.

Kent Community Foundation will consider applications of up to £10,000 for one of these three criteria:

• The promotion of traditional crafts and skills in the built environment, agriculture and the conservation of historic bridges.
• The advancement of environmental protection or improvement on the River Medway and its banks in Rochester and Strood.
• Community development and advancement of amateur sport through access to and appropriate use of the River Medway.

More information here.

UNICEF UK announces £20mn funding milestone from People’s Postcode Lottery

Marking the International Day of Education on 24 January, UNICEF UK announced that since 2017 the charity has received £20 million thanks to funds raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, supporting education in emergencies programmes around the world.

Since 2021, players of People’s Postcode Lottery have been supporting the charity’s work in East and Southern Africa. For example, frequent droughts and seasonal floods, in the Southern Ethiopia region mean many children have been displaced from their homes and schools have been swamped with floodwaters leaving students without a place to learn.

With funds raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery and awarded by Postcode Education Trust, UNICEF has worked with delivery partners to set up alternative learning centres where programmes are delivered in the South Omo Zone. This allowed the charity to meet the educational needs of children aged 9-14 who are out of school, and it has supported over 4,300 children in the region who have been impacted by the climate crisis.

Postcode Education Trust does not accept unsolicited applications, selecting charities to fund that meet its objectives.

More information here.

About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.