Trust to support twice as many Shetland charities

December 1st 2020

Shetland Charitable Trust is to pay out grants worth £8.3 million to help fund 26 local projects and organisations next year.

Trust to support twice as many Shetland charities

Shetland Charitable Trust is to pay out grants worth £8.3 million to help fund 26 local projects and organisations next year.

In a new approach, half the organisations awarded funding have not benefited from an annual trust grant previously while the more-regular funding recipients are being placed on a securer footing with provisional grant offers stretching up to four years ahead.

The largest beneficiary from the Main Grant Scheme for 2021/22 will be Shetland Recreational Trust, which is set to receive over £3.1m (38 per cent of the total budget) to run its network of six leisure centres, sports fields and two swimming pools.

Just under £2m (24 per cent) will be granted to Shetland Islands Council to help pay for the higher standard of community care provided in Shetland and its network of care centres.

Other major beneficiaries include Shetland Amenity Trust (£1.17m); Shetland Arts Development Agency (£650,000) and substantially increased grants for social enterprise company COPE Ltd (£225,000) and Shetland Islands Citizens Advice Bureau (£209,400).

The grant allocations were agreed at a meeting of the charitable trust on Thursday 26^th November. Trustees also approved a contingency fund of up to £1.3m to provide further assistance to COPE and the three major trusts if they suffer a second year of drastically reduced income from losing customers during Covid-19 restrictions.

Charitable trust chairman Dr Andrew Cooper said: “Trustees were keen to see a wider spread of groups accessing funding than in previous years so it’s pleasing that we received so many good bids and have been able to offer help to twice the number of organisations.”

Among the organisations gaining their first full-year grants are Shetland Women’s Aid (£100,000); Mind Your Head (£75,000) and Shetland Care Attendants Scheme (£74,300).

A core aim of all the trust’s redesigned grant schemes is to reduce inequality and social isolation, which applicants had to address in their funding bids.

Among the many new schemes designed to make a difference in those areas is the Citizens Advice Bureau’s plan to target people in need of help who are hard to reach and a plan by Ability Shetland to employ a disability sports development co-ordinator to increase participation in physical activity.

Please see list of grant awards here

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.