The Woodward Charitable Trust, a grant-making trust, is one of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts. Twice a year it awards grants to UK registered charities with an annual turnover of less than £200,000 who are making ‘a real difference in their communities and who stand out in the work that they do’.

The funding is for charitable organisations in the UK working in the following areas:

Children and young people (up to 25 years) who are isolated, at risk of exclusion or involved in antisocial behaviour. This covers gang violence and knife crime, education and mentoring, as well as projects that work to raise self-esteem and employment opportunities and encourage an active involvement in and contribution towards the local community.
Disadvantaged families. This covers parenting support and guidance, mental health, food poverty, refuges and domestic violence projects.
Prisoners and ex-offenders and specifically projects that maintain and develop contact with prisoners' families and help with the rehabilitation and resettlement of prisoners and/or ex-offenders after their release.

The majority of an applicant's beneficiaries (more than 50%) must be within at least one of these areas to be eligible.

Although grants of up to £3,000 are available, most grants are for £1,000 or less. The Trustees favour small-scale, locally based initiatives and most grants are only for one year.

The grants are for core costs rather than specific projects and will cover staff salaries, rent, utilities, general office costs, accountancy/audit costs, fundraising, governance and compliance, and costs supporting the core programmes of the organisation.

Applications will be considered from UK registered charities, charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs), community interest companies (CICs) and exempt charities with an annual turnover of less than £200,000.

Organisations may apply for a grant for up to three years in a row, or three times within a five-year period. Once this has been reached they must wait two years before reapplying.

There are two application windows each year with applications usually considered in March and November.

The current deadline for applications is 26 July 2024 (noon).

For more information and to apply, please visit General Application Guidelines – The Woodward Charitable Trust