Grant Criteria

Before making an application to Wade’s Charity it is important that you check whether your organisation is eligible to apply. There are three key things to consider:

1: The area you work in

We are constrained to only support projects which are working with people residing in the pre-1974 boundary of the City of Leeds. This area equates roughly to Leeds postcodes LS1 to LS17 – but does not include areas that were previously within the Wetherby Rural District Councils boundary, such as Thorner.

The map below gives an indication of the specific area we work in, but please do contact us for further clarification.

2: The activities or services you want to provide

All grant applications must fulfil one of our two charitable objectives. This means that your application must be offering recreational opportunities to people or it must be related to the use of public open space.

3: Your organisation

We are only able to support activities that are evidently charitable. Therefore we generally only support registered charities, exempt or excepted charities or industrial & provident societies through the Main Grants Programme. If you feel that your application is for wholly charitable purposes, but your organisation is not a registered charity and you meet the other criteria above please contact us to discuss your proposal. The Small Grants Programme will consider applications from constituted community groups as well as registered charities.

If you meet these three key criteria you are eligible to apply either to the Small Grants Programme (Maximum £300) or the Main Grants Programme (All other applications)

Guidelines for projects we are unable to support

Below is a list of some of the things we are unfortunately unable to support

Applications from outside the beneficial area

Applications from non-charitable organisations i.e. grants can only be paid to registered charities

Applications from individuals

Applications for church repairs (unless there is proven significant community use)

Circulars or general appeals from high profile national charities

Applications which do not offer benefit within the objectives and terms of the Trust

Applications for activities which are the responsibility of statutory or local authority funding, particularly within health or education

Applications to fund salaries

Applications to fund core costs

Repeat Funding

Grants are most always given on a "one-off" basis and longer term funding is not the norm. However, applicants may submit one application per calendar year with each application being suitably supported and each being assessed on its own merit.

Whilst we do take a flexible approach when considering applications from any organisation in consecutive years, such applications are not encouraged if there is a danger that the organisation concerned will become over dependent upon funding from the Charity.

We do not have an upper limit on the value of grant that can be applied for, but grants tend to fall between £300 and £6,000. However, ALL applications are judged on their own merit particularly in relation to the value for money they offer and the difference that any grant will make to the beneficiaries – ie the impact. We would therefore urge you to think carefully about how much you are applying for and be sure to support your application with strong justification of costs.