Welcome to The Foyle Foundation Website

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE – 27 April 2020

The Trustees of the Foundation are keeping its grant making policy under constant review in the light of social and economic developments in relation to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Our current policy is set out below.

Please refer to our website regularly as we expect to refine our approach, depending on the length and impact of the lockdown as they affect the sectors we support.

The Main Grants Scheme will remain suspended in respect of new Applications, as we digest the impact which the lockdown is having and is likely to have. We anticipate that any relaxation of the lockdown will be phased and will be likely to affect charitable organisations which involve concentrated social gathering differently to those which do not. We will aim to adjust our response to both situations and publish revised guidelines for support in June 2020. Major Capital Requests will remain suspended in respect of new applications until 2021 when further guidelines will be issued.

The Small Grants Scheme will re-open to new Applications with effect from June 2020 on the basis of changed criteria, which will be updated on the website in May. We recognise that small local charities, largely staffed by volunteers, do not have the financial resources to sustain their activities for very long when they are unable to raise money in their communities.

The Foyle School Library Scheme will remain suspended in respect of new Applications until the situation becomes clearer as to when and how schools will be allowed to re-open after September 2020.

All current grant recipients (to whom we had agreed to make grants before we suspended processing New Applications from 24 March 2020) will continue to be supported by the Foundation. We are talking to all such grantees, on a case by case basis. with a view to agreeing changes to the timing or delivery of their funded activities, which so far as possible respond to their circumstances post the impact of the Coronavirus.

All Pending Applications already in the pipeline which had been received before 24 March 2020, we are processing on a case by case basis as above. As previously announced, we will not be approving capital requests, nor pipeline applications for projects which involve any material element of social gathering.

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The Foyle Foundation

The Foyle Foundation is an independent grantmaking trust that distributes grants to UK charities. The Foundation does not support applications from individuals.

We welcome applications from across the country and encourage applications from all areas outside London and the South East.  

Since it became operational in November 2001, The Foundation has disbursed £108.8M in grants (up to 31st December 2019).

The Foundation supports charities in three main areas:

• Main Grants Scheme, supporting charities whose core work covers Arts and Learning
• The Foyle School Library Scheme (this scheme is currently suspended)
• Small Grants Scheme, supporting charities in all fields with a turnover of less than £150,000 per annum