Grants are available for charities and housing associations that focus on vocational skills and technical training in the creative industries in the UK.

The funding is intended for projects and organisations operating in the UK and that are focused on skills and training in particular in the creative industries.

The inaugural funding round aims to:

Build capacity and resources for technical and vocational skills development in creative industries, especially within historically underfunded communities.
Explore the role that skills development, and creative people, makers and designers can play in addressing issues of social justice.
Create the infrastructure for a more equitable creative industry sector.

This round is focused on organisations working in the one or more of following areas:

Craft.
Design.
Art.
Architecture.

The Foundation offers two different grants:

Regular Grants (inaugural grants) of between £30,000 and £50,000 available throughout the year.
Landmark grants of £100,000 per year are available once every three to four years.

There is £500,000 available for the inaugural grant funding round. It is anticipated that a maximum of 10 grants will be awarded. There will be another, larger, funding round later in the year.

The size of the grant will be determined by the size of the applicant organisation.

Applications will be accepted from:

UK registered charities
Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs)
Housing Associations (RSL)
Excepted and exempt charities.

Applicants must have at least one year’s worth of annual accounts as a registered charity and submit one of the following:

Their annual accounts, independently audited or examined.
A copy of their Charity Commission annual return.

The funding will support projects and organisations operating in the UK that are focused on skills and training in particular in the creative industries. Training programmes do not need to be accredited but they need to be run by professionals who are qualified to teach those skills.

The funding can be used for operating/core costs or for a specific project.

For more information, please visit Inaugural Grants Programme — The Goldsmiths' Company