Please carefully read the work we want to fund, paying particular attention to the general exclusions and 2023/24 changes to our grant-making.

JRCT is interested in funding work which:

  • is about removing problems through radical solutions, and not simply about making problems easier to live with
  • has a clear sense of objectives, and of how to achieve them
  • is innovative and imaginative
  • and where the grant has a good chance of making a difference.

Within its areas of interest, the Trust makes grants to a range of organisations and to individuals.

If your organisation is a registered, excepted or exempt charity based within any of the four jurisdictions of the UK and all of your work fits within our published programmes, we encourage you to consider applying for unrestricted or core support, although you may apply for programme or project funding if you prefer.

If you are based outside the UK and you are registered as a charitable organistion in your local jurisdiction, you may apply for general support if all of your work fits within our published programmes, and the following criteria are also met:

  • your organisation is governed by an unpaid board
  • your organisation is not for profit
  • your organisation's formal purposes fall within the list of charitable purposes recognised within English law.

For all other organisations or individual applicants, you may apply for a specific project or defined programme of work that would provide public benefit and further our aims as set out in our published policies.

We cannot fund organisations or work that is party political (eg supporting or opposing a political party) or which is commercial in nature or otherwise intended for private benefit.

Written criteria can never cover every eventuality. Once you have read the programme information carefully, you are encouraged to contact the Trust office by email or telephone to discuss your application. You should do this well before the deadline for applications.

All queries regarding applications should be directed to the Trust office. Grants staff aim to be available to discuss applications by telephone or email, but are unable to meet with applicants prior to the submission of an application, due to limitations on staff capacity.  Please do not contact individual trustees about your application, at any stage of the process.  

General exclusions

The Trust will not fund:

Organisations:
  • larger, older national charities which have an established constituency of supporters and substantial levels of reserves
  • statutory bodies
  • for-profit organisations
Projects:
  • medical research
  • academic research, except as an integral part of policy and campaigning work that is central to our areas of interest
  • building, buying or repairing buildings
  • business development or job creation schemes
  • service provision, including providing care, support or training services, such as for elderly people, children and young people, people with learning difficulties, people with physical disabilities, mental health service users, refugees or asylum seekers
  • housing and homelessness
  • the arts, except where a project is specifically concerned with issues of interest to the Trust.
Individuals:
  • travel or adventure projects
  • educational bursaries, including graduate and post-graduate studies
  • the personal support of individuals in need.
Types of funding:
  • general appeals
  • work which we believe should be funded from statutory sources, or which has been in the recent past
  • work which has already been undertaken
Place:
  • the Trust funds individuals or groups based in the UK to undertake work at a national level. This means work that seeks to make positive change across the UK as a whole, or across one or more of its member countries - England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland
  • under some of our programmes, we make a small number of grants for work at a pan-European level, in relation to international institutions, or to replicate or amplify local work in the UK with wider significance. Please see individual grant policies for details
  • the Trust does not fund local or national work anywhere outside the UK.


Each programme also has specific exclusions. Details of these can be found on the individual programme pages in the Funding priorities section.