How To Apply - Sir George Martin

The trustees will next meet to discuss grant applications on the 6th October 2025 and in February and June 2026.

Please note that from June 2025 we will be using a new grant management system so that all Expressions of Interest (EoI) for a grant and full applications need to be submitted via our SmartyGrants online portal. As the Sir George Martin Trust has always taken a very friendly and simple approach to its grant making process, we want to ensure this does not change for grant seekers and the aim of the new online portal is to modernise our internal systems, improve our data capture and learning, as well as having the ability to send out helpful reminders to grant holders for things such as their Outcomes Report.

We operate a two-stage application process – Expression of Interest first and then full application form – to save grant seekers time and energy. Our full application form is purposely not available to complete on our website so that our Trust Manager can get to know your organisation first and then provide guidance on how to write a strong application for the Sir George Martin Trust. However, you can review a PDF of our application form here SGMT Application Form so that you can see how long the form is and the questions.

Check that your organisation meets our criteria on the Home and Who We Give To pages and review the case studies on the bottom half of the Who We Give To page to get a better idea of the sort of charities, churches and work we support.
Complete the brief Expression of Interest (EoI) form here https://sirgeorgemartintrust.smartygrants.co.uk/SGMTGrantsOct2025 where you tell us about your organisation, its work, your current financial position, when you need a grant and what for. Our Trust Manager continues to welcome emails and phone calls from grant seekers, but after the email or call you will then need to complete the EoI form. You will click on Start a submission at the top of the page and then set up a SmartyGrants account by putting in your email address and your chosen password.
Our Trust Manager will then reply asap and may ask you a couple more questions and then she will tell you right away if she thinks the trustees will consider a full application from your organisation.
If you are a new applicant to the Sir George Martin Trust, the Trust Manager will then organise an in-person visit, Teams meeting or telephone call to find out more about your organisation and its work, as well as providing guidance on how to make the application to the Trust as strong as possible. You can also read the Top tips for completing your grant application form here SGMT YCAF Top Tips to assist you.
Our Trust Manager will invite you to submit a full application via the SmartyGrants portal and give you guidance on the deadline for submitting the application form.
If you are a repeat applicant to the Trust, once the Trust Manager has reviewed your Expression of Interest (EoI) form, she will invite you to submit a full application via the SmartyGrants portal and give you guidance on the deadline for submitting the application form.
You will receive an automated email to confirm that your application has been received and then once the full online application form has been reviewed by the Trust Manager and further assessments carried out, she will put forward her recommendations to the seven trustees who make the final decision.
Following each trustees’ meeting, the Trust Manager will aim to inform applicants of the outcome by email and for successful applicants make the BACS payment within 5 – 10 days of the meeting. The End of Grant Report Form for grant holders will also be sent at this stage. Successful applicants are then asked to confirm receipt of the grant awarded email and that the payment has been received into the organisation’s bank account.
The brief End of Grant Report Form should be completed and returned within 6-12 months. You can review the form here SGMT 2025 End of Grant Report Form. Your organisation will receive a reminder to return the form 11 months after the grant was received.
Once a month, every month, the Trust Manager reads the most recent Outcomes Reports received from grant holders and emails these for all the trustees to read. The information is used to form the Trust’s annual Impact Report and case studies are featured on the Trust’s website.

Other useful information:

The Sir George Martin Trust is a participant of the Yorkshire Common Application Form initiative (YCAF) which aims to make the application process for grant seekers easier and faster by many local funders asking exactly similar questions in the same format on their application form. The other YCAF participants can be reviewed at https://www.yorkshirefunders.org.uk/ycaf/
The Sir George Martin Trust currently aims to give grants to around 40 – 50% of every Expression of Interest that it receives.
Future grants/applications may be jeopardised if trustees fail to receive feedback about the success of your work following a donation.
The Trust does not normally repeat grants to any charity in any one year, and the maximum number of consecutive grants is usually three. The Trust generally prefers to adopt a one-off policy in terms of its giving, but is working towards giving more multi-year grants each year.
We ask that repeat applicants wait 12 months from receiving a grant before applying again.
Unsuccessful enquiries and applicants are generally informed by email.
To review our Privacy Policy please click here SGMT Privacy Notice – GDPR Policy
NOTE ON SMARTYGRANTS PORTAL: SmartyGrants is currently not optimised for touch screen devices. For smaller touch screens, such as smartphones, the fields can be on the small side. We recommend that, wherever possible, a laptop/desktop or a touch screen device with a larger screen is used to access the system. SmartyGrants has restrictions around what file types can be uploaded into file upload fields. MS Publisher’s default file type is .pub and that is not currently a supported file type. MS Publisher does allow you to save files as .pdf or .docx though and both of these are supported files types.

Please don’t hesitate to contact our Trust Manager, Carla Marshall, if you have any questions. Our contact details are:

Carla Marshall
Sir George Martin Trust
Harlig House, Skipton Road, Ilkley, LS29 9RP

info@sirgeorgemartintrust.org.uk

01943 605372

Check that your organisation meets our criteria on the Home and Who We Give To pages and review the case studies on the bottom half of the Who We Give To page to get a better idea of the sort of charities, churches and work we support.

Our Trust Manager will then reply asap and may ask you a couple more questions and then she will tell you right away if she thinks the trustees will consider a full application from your organisation.

Our Trust Manager will invite you to submit a full application via the SmartyGrants portal and give you guidance on the deadline for submitting the application form.

If you are a repeat applicant to the Trust, once the Trust Manager has reviewed your Expression of Interest (EoI) form, she will invite you to submit a full application via the SmartyGrants portal and give you guidance on the deadline for submitting the application form.

The brief End of Grant Report Form should be completed and returned within 6-12 months. You can review the form here SGMT 2025 End of Grant Report Form. Your organisation will receive a reminder to return the form 11 months after the grant was received.

Once a month, every month, the Trust Manager reads the most recent Outcomes Reports received from grant holders and emails these for all the trustees to read. The information is used to form the Trust’s annual Impact Report and case studies are featured on the Trust’s website.

Other useful information:

The Sir George Martin Trust currently aims to give grants to around 40 – 50% of every Expression of Interest that it receives.

Future grants/applications may be jeopardised if trustees fail to receive feedback about the success of your work following a donation.

The Trust does not normally repeat grants to any charity in any one year, and the maximum number of consecutive grants is usually three. The Trust generally prefers to adopt a one-off policy in terms of its giving, but is working towards giving more multi-year grants each year.

We ask that repeat applicants wait 12 months from receiving a grant before applying again.

Unsuccessful enquiries and applicants are generally informed by email.

To review our Privacy Policy please click here SGMT Privacy Notice – GDPR Policy