Plater Trust launches £400,000 grants programme for domestic good causes

The Charles Plater Trust has launched its 2023 large grants programme today, 13 January, and hopes to offer up to £400,000 in grants for domestic good causes.

The Trust is calling on all registered charities, with annual income below £10 million, who share its Catholic Social Teaching values, to apply for a large grant of up to £50,000 for social action, lay leadership or applied research projects.

Bishop Richard Moth, Chair of the CPT said: "The new year stands before us, but the cost-of-living crisis has pushed many more into poverty and hardship in the UK. The Holy Father has reminded us at the start of a new year that we need to battle the virus of inequality and to ensure food and dignified labour for all. At the Trust, we are eager to partner with charities who want to respond creatively to these hard times to seek justice for people on the sharp end of these challenges. So let us welcome the new year, full of new possibilities to create justice."

Cathy Corcoran, Chair of the CPT grant-making committee said: "We're so concerned about rising poverty here in the UK, that we've launched our large grants programme early this year and extended the window to apply, to do as much as we can to attract partners we can support to tackle the current crisis. The situation is quite simply unacceptable in the sixth wealthiest nation on earth with millions of people unable to afford the basics such as food and heating."

Criteria

The Trust has introduced a number of changes to its eligibility criteria this year to try and target funding more effectively to the frontline. Charities with over £10 million in annual income are now no longer eligible to apply for CPT funding. However, any registered English or Welsh charity can apply for funding, as long as the proposed work has direct benefit in England and Wales, and they have not had a previous grant from CPT in the last two years. Capital cost projects and organisational overheads also cannot now be covered by the Trust in an effort to spread its funding further.

Apply online

For further details and to apply online visit: www.plater.org.uk.

The closing date for applications is Friday 17 March 2023, with successful applicants publicly announced at an award ceremony held by The Trust on 21 June 2023.

Background

What the Plater Trust can't support:

Charities with an annual income above £10 million. The only exception to this if for Universities and HE Institutions, who irrespective of their size and annual income, can apply for both small or large grants from CPT, on condition that they must be partnering with a micro, small, medium or large charity in their project proposal to be eligible for CPT funding in a joint bid of this nature.

Projects that are outside CPT's three priority themes - leadership for lay people; social action and/or applied research.

Projects from organisations that are not registered charities or are not currently working towards establishing their charitable status.

Work that does not have a direct benefit in England or Wales or where the applicant organisation is not based in England or Wales.

Grants to individuals - CPT only provides support to registered charities not individuals. The only exception to this is that CPT will consider funding individual postgraduate scholarship projects in the applied research priority theme, providing that the applying academic organisation ensures that it holds an open competition to select a candidate to undertake the grant-funded research and that it takes place in partnership within a charity practice-based setting.

Organisations without at least three non-executive trustees or directors.

Capital costs: CPT will only fund revenue project costs, not capital costs. Revenue costs are the costs of making projects happen. They occur during the project, for that project. Capital costs are for items which last beyond the project, and these cannot be funded by CPT and so should not be included in project budgets.

Organisational core costs: Core costs are the running costs of an organisation. This is the money you need to make the work happen. These are also sometimes called overheads, running costs or operating costs. Unfortunately, due to the demands on CPT's limited resources they do not now cover core costs/overheads in project grants, so please do not include these types of costs in any project budget to CPT.

Repeat funding: If your organisation has been successful in securing funds from CPT before, they will only accept another application from you if two years has elapsed from the date you last received a grant instalment from the CPT.

Multiple successful applications: Each successful applicant can only hold one grant from CPT at a given time.

Key dates

These are the key dates for applicants:

Deadline for applications to be received is Friday 17 March 2023 by 5pm.
All large grant applicants will know CPT decision by Friday 9 June 2023.
Successful applicants will attend the CPT awards ceremony on Wednesday 21 June 2023.
Dates for the 2023 small grants round will be available on our website by 1 September 2023.