Guidelines for Grants & Bursaries

Budget and application timetable

Woodland Heritage allocates sums for the year ahead each June. These support grants to help ‘people’ (i.e. development of skills and learning) and ‘projects’. 

Due to recent changes in the charity, the Grants and Bursaries scheme is currently under review. Applications are still being accepted, but we may not be able to allocate funding immediately. If your application is time-sensitive please let us know when you apply.

Size of grants

The majority of grants are for under £500 and can be authorised by the Grants Committee, sometimes outside the meeting cycle above.  Grants above £5,000 are very rare, as are grants that span more than one financial year; ‘people’ grants tend to be smaller than ‘project’ ones.  Long term commitments, including multi-year research proposals, are not currently encouraged.

‘People’
Grants to help develop careers, acquire skills, equipment etc will have few demands of the applicants other than to complete what they have requested help with and to share those benefits more widely (often via public communications), although it would be hoped that the successful applicants would also become part of a growing alumnus of recipients who would be encouraged to communicate with each other via social media and become supporters and members of WH.

If employed by an organisation with a higher unrestricted net worth than Woodland Heritage, any grant made by the Charity would be expected to be matched by the applicant’s employer.

‘Projects’
Fewer in number than ‘people’ grants.  If the number of initiatives supported at any one time is contained to a manageable level, Woodland Heritage would hope to be able to get more involved in delivery of ‘project’ grants; impact and added value will be sought at all times.

Complex projects and multiple funders
Woodland Heritage is happy to be a ‘pioneer’ funder, to help projects get started, but applicants need to be aware of the Charity’s desire to see projects start within three months of a grant being awarded, unless postponed by subsequent agreement.  When potentially a member of a funding consortium, Woodland Heritage will require clarity at the outset as to how the Charity will benefit, especially if it is likely to be involved as a minor funder.

Geography
With ‘people’ applications there is less likelihood of location being of major import, whilst with ‘projects’, Woodland Heritage has to balance being involved in as many areas of the UK as possible, with the realism of how to support these schemes physically in order to secure the added value referred to above.  With ‘projects’, therefore, some consideration will be given to where the Charity is likely to be most active, e.g. relative vicinity of, or links to, Whitney Sawmills.

Innovation
Will be encouraged generally, but particularly in fields such as broadcast and social media so that the Charity’s principles can reach as many new audiences as possible.

Improving standards
Not all applications will succeed for a number of reasons.  But with grants for ‘people’ in particular, there will be an encouragement of competition and aspiration in order that the winning of a Woodland Heritage award becomes something to be coveted and promoted in the successful applicants’ CVs.

Woodland Heritage, March 2020