Doors open to new bids for share of around £8.4m a year

July 16th 2020

Shetland Charitable Trust launches its new-look Main Grant Scheme on Monday with an annual estimated budget of £8.4 million to spend.

Doors open to new bids for share of around £8.4m a year

Shetland Charitable Trust launches its new-look Main Grant Scheme on Monday with an annual estimated budget of £8.4 million to spend.

The funds are open to local charities offering projects and services to improve the quality of life in Shetland. Trustees are particularly keen to support projects which tackle inequality and social isolation.

Local charities have six weeks to submit bids for a share of the funding for 2021 and beyond with no cap on the amount they can apply for.

The fresh approach is part of the new five-year strategy agreed by trustees last September and seeks to expand and refresh the range of services supported by the grants budget, which has risen from £7.3m last year.

Applicants will be able to seek funding for up to four years, making it easier to plan for the longer term.
Launching the scheme, trust chairman Dr Andrew Cooper said: “Shetland has an extraordinary network of organisations dedicated to helping others and they are having to evolve continually to meet the changing demands of these turbulent times.

“The trust too needs to be able to respond and adjust its grant funding to best serve the community’s needs. We are optimistic that the groups we fund – and others that we haven’t funded before – will come forward with innovative proposals for making Shetland an even better place to live than it is already.”

The Main Grant Scheme is open to organisations with a turnover of more than £50,000 a year undertaking charitable activities in the fields of social care and welfare, arts and culture, heritage and the environment or sport and recreation.

The closing date for applications is 12 noon on Monday 31st August.

Last year the trust paid £7.3m towards the running costs of 13 charitable beneficiaries of which £6.7m went to four major organisations: Shetland Recreational Trust; the rural care model of residential and day care centres; Shetland Amenity Trust and Shetland Arts Development Agency.

Last week the trust also awarded an additional £530,173 to 16 projects to boost services for vulnerable and disadvantaged people during the current financial year.

Testimonials

The funding COPE Ltd receives from the Shetland Charitable Trust supports us in many ways. It allows us to develop and maintain a strong foundation to our core business and assists us to provide on-going employment skill development opportunities to people with disabilities living within Shetland. COPE Ltd highly values the support provided to our organisation by The Shetland Charitable Trust.

“The substantial grant made to us by Shetland Charitable Trust every year allows us to provide first-class facilities and dedicated staff to underpin sporting success among people of all ages and abilities in the islands.”

Having this core funding from the Charitable Trust means that we can use that money where we need it at any given time. It's multi-year funding which really takes the pressure off. To have the funding to keep going is really important as it is improving the lives of disabled folk in Shetland.

The funding that we get from the Charitable Trust pays for part of staff support and matching with other funders. Without local funders we wouldn't have national funders, and without either of those funders, we wouldn't be able to do this, so funding from the Shetland Charitable Trust is incredibly important.

The funding Shetland Arts gets from Shetland Charitable Trust is about making sure the organisation can thrive, access other funds, and deliver on behalf of the community of Shetland. Our funding from the Shetland Charitable Trust really helps us with our conversations with national funders because it shows that we're working on behalf of what the local objectives and priorities are.

The Access to Leisure scheme was introduced to allow folk to be able to get access to classes and activities for a lower cost. I feel that the SRT play a critical role in every community across Shetland and that's all down to the funding of the Shetland Charitable Trust that we're able to maintain that.

Unpaid carers do an amazing job looking after people 24/7 in their own homes, keeping them living at home safely, and they really need help to do that. Thanks to the funding from Shetland Charitable Trust, we've been able to employ a deputy manager, recruit more care attendants, and provide overnights. We're also really grateful for the funding because it means that everybody can get the service for free.