On our main grants programme, we generally make grants of between £10,000 and £50,000 per year, for up to three years. Last year our grants in the Arts, Environment, and Social Action categories ranged from £30,000 to £150,000 and the average grant size was around £106,000.To get an idea of the types of grant we make, take a look at the grants list on our website or on 360Giving.
Before you apply, please make sure that you have read our funding guidelines carefully to ensure that your organisation is eligible and that your work meets our funding priorities.
We receive many more applications than we can support, which means that we tend to apply all of our criteria quite strictly when considering applications. In 2023/24, we received 462 applications. 309 were eligible, of which 45 were invited to the second stage. Of these second stage applications, 43 were ultimately successful, representing a success rate of 13% from the first stage application and 96% from the second stage application. This reflects our aim to bring through to the second stage those applications with the best chance of success. We look for work that has a high impact and achieves positive change or long-lasting benefits. This may include tried and tested approaches as well as new ways of working.
If you are unsuccessful, we will ask you to wait for one year before you reapply (based on the date the application was submitted). It is therefore important to make the best case you can at the first stage.
You can see a summary of the guidelines for each category in the ‘What we fund’ section, and detailed criteria in our full funding guidelines document.
Preparing and submitting your application
To support with developing your application we have summarised our two-stage application process below. We have also provided a detailed overview of what information we require for both stages here.
1. Please complete a two A4 page proposal using the following headings:
- A brief summary of your organisation’s aims and activities
- How your proposal meets our requirement that the work is of a national significance (explained more here)
- What you would like us to fund and why you are well placed to do this work
- How your proposal fits the criteria for the relevant category you are applying under
2. You will be asked to upload the following financial documents alongside the application:
- Your financial accounts (draft or published) from the previous financial year.
- Your management accounts for the current financial year.
- If your accounts show a significant surplus or deficit, high or low reserves outside of your reserves policy, we will ask you to provide a brief explanation
3. Create an online account and upload your first stage proposal and financial information.
Please go to our online portal here to create an online account. You can then upload you first stage proposal and financial information.
We make funding decisions throughout the year so you can apply at any time. However, if you are applying to the Museums and Galleries Fund there is an annual deadline and separate application process, so please check our website here for details.
We are committed to diverse, equitable and inclusive practices throughout our grantmaking, and have signed up to the DEI Data Standard. This includes a form that we ask organisations to complete when they submit their online application. These questions are included so we can understand more about your organisation and the people being supported, to help us to understand our applicants and funding better. This information is being used to inform our own monitoring and strategy and will not be used as the basis of individual funding decisions.
Once you have created your online account and uploaded your first stage application you will receive an instant confirmation. You can see more detail how long it will take us to get back to you in the application timelines document linked below, but usually we aim to deal with all first-stage applications within one to two months.
Stage 2
If your application proceeds to second stage, we will ask for a more detailed proposal and additional information. Then we will arrange to meet you to find out more about your work.
At this second stage we aim to make a decision within three months. If your application takes longer we will be in touch.
Application Timelines
Click here for additional information on our application timelines.Access Support
We ask that all applicants submit a two page written application, which can be in Word or PDF format. However, if you have a specific access requirement that makes submitting in this way difficult, please do contact us and we will be happy to discuss making reasonable adjustments to the process. This includes if you are having difficulty navigating the online portal. To support applicants, we have shared copies of the first and second stage application form here. These aim to be compatible with accessibility tools, but if you would like to receive a version in a different format, please do get in touch. For all such enquiries, please reach out to beth@ellerman.org.uk.
We are actively seeking to improve our accessibility and welcome any feedback on this front. You can see more detail about our approach to accessibility in our Accessibility Statement and in our blog.
Here are the answers to some of the most common queries.
Find out more about Funding FAQsFind out more
You should double check that you are not excluded by reading the list below. You can find further details in the FAQs on our website where indicated.
Find out more about What we do not fundFind out more