Grants listed on this page are for £100,000 and above. If asking for a large amount of money there will often be a lengthy application. It is essential that your project is thoroughly planned out before commencing an application. You should contact the grant-making body to discuss your project with them first. They are often willing to help advise you through the application.

Below are a list of large grants available.

National Lottery Heritage Fund

The National Lottery Heritage Fund (was HLF) is one of the largest grant-making bodies in the UK. It relaunched and simplified its grants programmes in January 2019 – see their website for details.
Before starting an application for any of these programmes you are able to submit a Project Enquiry Form which allows them to review your project and tell you if it would be eligible for funding. This is not assessed and has no effect on any application you make.

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation was established in 1961 and is one of the largest charitable foundations in the UK, giving out millions in grants each year. They will normally award grants between £5,000 – £500,000, but grants are occassionally given outside these limits.

They fund projects in the following categories:

• The arts
• Children and young people
• The environment
• Social change

The foundation operates a two stage application process. Stage one applications can be completed online via their website and, if successful, they will send out an invitation to complete the stage two application form.

For deadlines and more information see their website.

Postcode Dream Fund

The Postcode Dream Fund gives large grants of £400,000 – £1,000,000 to organisations anywhere in the UK between 2016 – 2018.

Their aim is to fund organisation’s “dream” projects that would not otherwise be able to take place. They specify that the projects must be creative, innovative and original. The projects must fall within the following categories:

• sports
• community development
• environmental protection
• health
• human rights
• prevention of poverty

Registered charities are welcome to apply but they must collaborate with another organisation on the project.

The application is in three stages and the initial application and guidance notes can be downloaded from the website.