Grant programmes
We do not accept applications for these grants. The Trustees use these funds to support projects that are of particular interest to them, and which fall outside our open grant programmes.
No. You may only make one application to PHF at a time.
We always receive large numbers of applications requesting far more funds than we have financial resources to support.
However in recent months we have experienced a substantial increase in the number of applications we receive. Given our available funding, this has led to a drop in the overall success rate to 10%.
Unfortunately, we have to turn down many good proposals, even though they meet our eligibility criteria. You can find the funding priorities on each of the grant programme pages:
On the About our grant programmes page, you can also find data about our grantmaking over the last 3 years, including the number of applications, number of grants awarded and grant funds available.
You can request between £5,001 – £30,000 from our Active Lives & Positive Futures grant programmes.
The Peter Harrison Foundation Community Fund (our small grants programme for Surrey) accepts applications for up to £5,000
You can read more about how we prioritise applications by clicking on the relevant grant programme below, and going to the funding priorities section.
Eligibility
Yes. You can read more about programme specific eligibility criteria by clicking on the button for the relevant grant programme below and going to the Eligibility criteria section:
We accept applications from registered charities but not from exempt charities. We will accept applications from universities that are registered charities. However, please note that Trustees prioritise applications from charities and CASCs with income of less than £5 million.
No, we can only accept applications from registered charities. If the school has a PTA or Friends group which is a registered charity then they can apply on behalf of the school.
No
If you have your own charity registration number, constitution and board of trustees, you may apply in your own right. We will not require the endorsement of your head office.
If you are part of a larger or a national charity, with the same charity number, and legally governed by the same board of trustees, we require the endorsement of the larger/national charity.
We will not accept an application from your organisation unless you are already registered with the charity regulator.
Charities must have been registered with the charity regulator for at least two years and have produced independently examined or audited accounts for at least one full year of operation. The same time periods also apply to Community Amateur Sports Clubs.
We only accept applications from registered charities and registered CASCs (Community Amateur Sports Clubs). Charities must have been registered with the charity regulator for at least two years and have produced independently examined or audited accounts for at least one full year of operation. The same time periods also apply to Community Amateur Sports Clubs.
We do not accept applications from Community Interest Companies.
You can use our Eligibility Checker tool.
How to apply
We are a very small team and it is not feasible for us to give individual feedback to all applicants.
The main reason for not funding projects is that we receive many more applications than we can support. You can find out more about our grantmaking, including the number of applications, number of grants awarded and grant funds available, on each of the grant programme pages.
We regret that we have to turn down many good proposals, even though they may meet our criteria. You can find more information about how we prioritise applications on the grant programme pages.
We will notify you of the outcome of your application within four months of the application deadline. You can see our application deadlines and decision dates below:
Application deadline | Decision |
1 January | 30 April |
1 April | 31 July |
1 July | 31 October |
1 October | 31 January |
Yes, on the How to Apply page you can download a full list of the questions asked at each stage.
If you are applying for a major grant, you may be invited to submit additional information. Please note, this is by request only, and PHF will contact you by email to provide details of how to log back into the application portal.
You can use the links below to access the initial application form, but please note you must have already created an account otherwise these forms will not work.
Applications to PHF should be made using our online application portal:
- Create an online account in order to gain access to the application portal.
- Once you create an online account you will be sent an email confirmation with a link to the log-in page for the portal. (We recommend saving this email or bookmarking the log-in page on your browser so that you can easily get back to it in the future.)
- Login to the portal to complete an initial application form
If you have a particular access requirement which means you are unable to use our online form, let us know and we will help you.
Our Trustees meet quarterly to consider grant applications. The standard annual application deadlines and decision dates are listed below:
Application deadline | Decision |
1 January | 30 April |
1 April | 31 July |
1 July | 31 October |
1 October | 31 January |
Indices of Multiple Deprivation
We use IMD (Indices of Multiple Deprivation) rankings to help us assess levels of deprivation.
- The Trustees have decided to focus our limited resources on those who live in the top 40% of areas
of deprivation (IMD deciles 1-4). - Work in the top 10% most deprived areas (IMD decile 1) is our highest priority.
- Applications for work in deciles 5 -10 are NOT ELIGIBLE to receive funding unless they are disability
focussed. Disability projects in deciles 5 – 10 are eligible but a lower priority for funding. - Regional / nationwide projects (which cover more than one IMD area) MUST demonstrate their
current effectiveness in supporting people in areas of high deprivation
You can use the following links to check the IMD for a particular postcode:
- UK: https://data.cdrc.ac.uk/dataset/index-multiple-deprivation-im
- England https://imd-by-postcode.opendatacommunities.org/imd/2019
- Wales: https://apps.dataunitwales.gov.uk/welshindexofmultipledeprivation/
- Scotland: https://simd.scot/#/simd2020/BTTTFTT/9/-4.0000/55.9000/
- Northern Ireland: https://deprivation.nisra.gov.uk/
You can use the following links to check the IMD for a particular postcode:
- UK: https://data.cdrc.ac.uk/dataset/index-multiple-deprivation-im
- England https://imd-by-postcode.opendatacommunities.org/imd/2019
- Wales: https://apps.dataunitwales.gov.uk/welshindexofmultipledeprivation/
- Scotland: https://simd.scot/#/simd2020/BTTTFTT/9/-4.0000/55.9000/
- Northern Ireland: https://deprivation.nisra.gov.uk/
You can also use the Find that Postcode website to find the basic IMD rank and decile data.
The Indices of Deprivation (ID) provide a means of identifying the most and least deprived areas in the UK and to identify if one area is more deprived than another. The Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) are datasets that are used to classify the relative deprivation of small areas (essentially a measure of poverty).
The IMD is a measure of relative deprivation for small areas (Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs). LSOAs are fixed statistical geographies of about 1,500 people designed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Multiple components of deprivation are weighted with different strengths and compiled into a single score of deprivation. There are 37 components which are grouped into the following categories: income, employment, education, health, crime, barriers to housing, living environment.
The IMD can be used to identify the most deprived areas nationally, regionally and locally. The general rule is the lower an area’s score and the lower it’s rank on the scale (i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd) the more deprived an area is.
The indices rank small areas from most deprived to least deprived and divides them into 10 equal groups (deciles). Decile 1 represents the most deprived 10% of local areas, while decile 10 represents the least deprived 10%.
Grant awards
Yes, you can download the PHF logo and our brand guidelines on the Publicising our grant page. Please ensure you read the guidelines carefully before using the logo.
You can see our standard terms and conditions here. Some grants will have additional conditions applied and these will be detailed in your grant offer letter.
The majority of grants are paid as soon as we receive your signed grant offer letter. Some grants will have extra conditions attached, for example planning permission approval for capital projects, or a minimum amount of match funding secured from other funders. These will be detailed in your grant offer letter, and funds will be released upon written confirmation that all conditions have been met.
All payments are made by bank transfer, and we use the Confirmation of Payee service to verify the identity of recipients.
Your grant offer letter needs to be signed by two of your trustees or senior members of staff and then returned to us within 2 months to accept your grant offer. You will be asked to log into the application portal and upload your signed grant offer letter and your organisation’s bank details. Once these are received, we will process your grant payment.
You will be sent an email notification of your grant award, followed by a grant offer letter (also by email). This grant offer letter needs to be signed by two of your trustees or senior members of staff and returned to us within 2 months.
Grant reports
You can find full details on what information is required for progress reports and final reports on our Information for grantees page.
Yes. We will send you an email with a link to the form when your report is due. If you would like to submit your report earlier you can find the forms on the Submit your grant report page.
You will need to submit a brief report at the end of each year of your grant, and you will be sent an email reminder including a link directly to the grant report form. You will then have two months to submit your report. We can be flexible about reporting dates, so if this doesn’t fit with your project timescales then please get in touch to discuss a more appropriate schedule.
You can find out more on the Information for grantees page.
Re-applying to PHF
Charities whose applications are not successful must wait at least one year after they were notified of the outcome of their previous application before re-applying.
Charities awarded a grant by the Foundation must wait at least two years after submission of the final grant report before re-applying.