Small Grants Programme
Small Grants Programme
The Small Grants Programme is closed for applications.
We will reopen for applications at 10am on Monday 3rd November 2025.
This is a rolling funding programme for one-off grants of up to £5,000.
There are eight application windows throughout the year and each window will close when 40 applications have been received. Please see the Process and Key Dates tabs for more information.
Although you cannot prefill the online application form, you may prepare your application by downloading the offline version of the form and our Small Grants Budget Template.
Kindly note that the October 2025 application window received the maximum 40 applications in just under 30 minutes.
Prepare for your application
Eligibility Criteria
The Leathersellers’ Small Grants Programme 2025/26 will consider applications from charities and Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs) registered and operating in the UK. We will not consider applications from Community Interest Companies (CICs).
Charities and CIOs must meet the following criteria:
- Deliver activities to meet an identified need for vulnerable members of the community
- Provide evidence of effective impact/ difference made e.g. testimonials gathered from feedback and questionnaires
- Have a planned expenditure of under £200,000 during the financial year in which you are applying for funding.
- Demonstrate financial need. Due to overwhelming demand from charities with high financial need, we are unlikely to be able to prioritise applications from organisations holding more than 6 months’ free/unrestricted reserves.
- Have a publicly accessible website clearly showing who you are and what you do.
- Have a minimum of one year’s published accounts available via the Charity Commission. We do not accept management accounts.
We do not fund the following:
- Capital projects
- Hospices
- Medical research or charities supporting life-threatening medical conditions/ specialised medical needs
- Services that charge participants for access, irrespective of a person’s ability to pay
Making a good application
We want to fund excellent organisations and people, where activities improve the lives of others.
We have designed our application form to only ask for what we need in order to gather a clear picture of your work. On reading your application, we should understand:
- What need you are aiming to address in your local community
- What difference you make in people’s lives and how you do it
- How you know you are making a difference (evidenced outcomes)
- The income and expenditure of your whole organisation as this is an unrestricted grant. Please ensure that you complete our budget template with information on your organisation, not just a project.
We are looking for organisations that:
- Understand the needs of their local community
- Are open and transparent about their work and finances
- Work in partnership with others
Why do we ask for your Safeguarding Policy?
Your safeguarding policy tells us how your organisation keeps your beneficiaries, staff, and volunteers safe. We expect your approach and processes to be proportional and if you are providing 1 to 1 services or working with children/ vulnerable members of the community, we would expect your policy to be publicly available and to include:
- appropriate, current legislation
- clear steps on what to do if a risk is identified, with relevant leadership and trustee contact details
- whistleblowing guidance
- details of safer recruitment practices
- signature and date, with a scheduled review date (ideally annually)
For further guidance, please see the NSPCC Safeguarding Assessment Tool and NSPCC’s guidance on writing safeguarding policies and practices
Process & key dates
Process
The Small Grants Committee will meet on eight occasions throughout the year, to support timely decisions. An application window will open a few weeks before each meeting and will close when 40 applications have been received.
Key Dates
Applications Open: 10am, Monday 1 September 2025
Committee Meeting Date: Tuesday 14 October 2025
Applications Open: 10am, Monday 6 October 2025
Committee Meeting Date: Wednesday 12 November 2025
Applications Open: 10am, Monday 3 November 2025
Committee Meeting Date: Tuesday 16 December 2025
Applications Open: 10am, Monday 15 December 2025
Committee Meeting Date: Tuesday 27 January 2026
Winter Break Thursday 18th December 2025 to Monday 5 January 2026
Applications Open: 10am, Monday 12 January 2026
Committee Meeting Date: Wednesday 25 February 2026
Applications Open: Monday 2 February 2026
Committee Meeting Date: Wednesday 18 March 2026
Easter Break Monday 30 March 2026 – Friday 10 April 2026
Applications Open: 10am, Tuesday 7 April 2026 (bank holiday on 6 April)
Committee Meeting Date: Wednesday 20 May 2026
Applications Open: 10am, Tuesday 5 May 2026 (bank holiday on 5 May)
Committee Meeting Date: Tuesday 16 June 2026
Please complete the application using the offline form. If you start an online application form and then find that we’ve reached our maximum applications, you will not be able to access this form again, so please work offline and copy answers over to ensure no answers are lost.
40 APPLICATIONS PER ROUND
Applying online
The form will be available at 10am on the day the application window opens and will automatically close when 40 submissions are received.
We strongly suggest that you draft your application using the offline Word version of the form – if you start online and we reach the maximum submissions, you will be unable to submit and you answers will not be saved.
We will view your accounts on the Charity Commission website. If your latest public accounts are over one year old, please upload a copy of your draft accounts with your online application.
You will receive a notification of your submission by email (please check spam/ junk folders for email from charityapp@leathersellers.org), and we will inform you of the outcome of your application within 8 weeks.
FAQs
We fund charities (CIO’s) who are registered with the Charity Commission. We recognise the different regulation and financial reporting the different structures are subject to, but our current focus is on supporting charities rather than social enterprises (which the CIC structure is designed to enable).
No, we support registered charities working within and for the benefit of individuals and communities across the UK.
If you are awarded a grant, we will send you a grant offer email detailing the terms and conditions of the grant and asking you to complete an acceptance form. Once you have completed the form, we will process the payment. The date the payment is sent signals the start of your grant.
We do not expect any reports from recipients of small grants.
If you have received a small grant from the Leathersellers’ previously, you must wait 12 months from the payment date before you may reapply. If your application was declined, you must wait 12 months from the date of your decision email.
Unfortunately, as we only have a small team it is not possible for us to provide feedback.
If you are providing 1 to 1 services or working with children/ vulnerable members of the community, we would expect your policy to be publicly available via your website. We can only support charities that follow excellent safeguarding practices, as demonstrated in the first instance by an accessible policy and clear processes. For further information, please visit the gov.uk website or read the NSPCC’s guidance on writing safeguarding policies and practices.
The success rate for the 24-25 Livery Year was 13%. We funded 45 applications.
When you receive confirmation of the success of your application you will be asked to complete an acceptance form. Your grant payment will be received 3-4 weeks after the completion of this form.
No, you cannot apply until you have one year of published accounts.