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Our Grants

What do we fund?

Our grants support a wide range of ministries across the UK. Before applying to us, we ask that you understand the nature of our grants and the types of work we support.

 

Nature of our Grants:

  • Maximum of 3 years.
  • Financial contribution to overall wages of one worker (we do not fund projects or building work).
  • Grants start at £500 per year, but the exact amount you apply for depends on your needs.
  • Continued funding is dependent on satisfactory 6-month reports.

Do I qualify for a grant?

Our grant holders are:

  • Based in England, Wales or Ireland.
  • Working to share the Gospel in areas of high deprivation.
  • Prioritising contact time with the people they seek to serve.
  • Full or Part time.
  • Lay workers (not working in an ordained role, and not leading their church).

General Guidance:

  • We expect the majority of your time to be spent in direct, evangelistic contact time with your target group.
  • In most cases, we would expect no more than one third of your time to be spent in preparation and administration.
  • We will not ordinarily support more than one (full-time equivalent) grant holder per organisation.
  • The grant awarded is for the benefit of the grant holder and is not transferable.
  • We can accept a further application from an organisation for a named grant holder 12-months after the existing grant has ceased.

 

Read more about our grants under the Application FAQs or Get in touch.

Our application process

We accept applications throughout the year, however they will be assessed twice yearly by our board of Trustees. The closing dates for full applications are 31st January and 31st July.

Fill in an Eligibility Quiz.

There are two stages to our online application process. The first stage is to fill out our Eligibility Quiz. We use this to assess whether we think you will be eligible for funding based on the information you provide.

If you are eligible you will be able to complete stage 2 and apply for a grant.

The deadline for submitting an Eligibility Quiz is 16th December / 16th June each year.

If your Eligibility Quiz is successful, we will ask you to complete the full application form.

The full application form goes into more detail about your work and funding situation, please get in touch with our Grants Administrator if you have any questions when filling in the form.

The applications are then assessed by our Board of Trustees in March and October, who individually and corporately seek to prayerfully assess your application against our criteria and Terms and Conditions.

If your application is successful, we will be in touch.

We will notify you of the outcome of your application within 10 working days of the Trustee meeting.

You are now a Grantee.

As a Grantee, you will be asked to send us an online report every six months to keep us informed of your ministry (deadlines 28th February and 31st August).

The Trustees assess those reports at their March / October meetings.

Your grant comes to an end.

Grants last for a maximum of 3 years. It is your responsibility to find alternative funding for the period after our funding has ceased. Once 12 months have passed, you are welcome to re-apply to us.

Read the full T&Cs
Read our application FAQs

Fill out the Eligibility Quiz

Fill out the form here
Tips for writing a good application Meri Schoeman, Grants Administrator at the Willats Trust Hi, I’m Méri! I’m the Grants and Office Administrator at The Willats Trust. Here are my top 10 tips for writing a good application:
  • 1

    Make sure you start your application in plenty of time before the deadline, we often have people rushing near the deadline, leaving little time to give detail in the application.

  • 2

    There are a few key people who will need to support your application (e.g. Line manager, Treasurer, References). Please make sure you contact them to inform them of your application (if they are not already aware) in good time and the input that is required from them.

  • 3

    Please read through our guidance notes and application form to see the types of applications we support. Also check out the FAQs above before applying for a grant to see what kind of work we do (and don’t!) support.

  • 4

    It may be tempting to shoehorn your job into an outreach role in a deprived area but it will more likely than not waste your time. We want you to be out there sharing the love of Jesus rather than spending time applying for something that may not be a good fit! Get in touch for other funders we can recommend.

  • 5

    Make it clear, using the timetable, how much of your time is spent in evangelistic contact time with individuals from deprived backgrounds to help us assess your application. These are the two most important factors we look out for. We ask for 20 of those contact hours (or 14 if your role is part-time) per week.

  • 6

    If you don’t currently have enough contact hours, consider if there is scope for your role to change before applying. What else could you do to share the Gospel creatively with those around you? Read our case studies to get inspired!

  • 7

    We love seeing innovative ways of sharing the Gospel where people are responding to need. Shout about anything you are doing of this nature in your application.

  • 8

    Assume we know nothing about your organisation. Please make acronyms or activity names clear (e.g. ACE group). It is more important that we know about the purpose of the activity and your involvement with it. It may be useful for someone outside of your organisation to read through your application before sending it to help with this.

  • 9

    Our application process may slightly change from time to time. We will keep our website up to date with any developments, so please use that as your first point of reference or get in touch if you have more questions.

  • 10

    Although we have our guidelines in place, we are open to God’s calling and will prayerfully assess every application. This means that we will occasionally assess applications outside of our usual remit, so please get in touch if you feel called to do so.

Related content

Application FAQs

Guides’ Stories

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The Willats Trust Charity no. 202269 Tel: 01225 33149901225 331499
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