The categories below are all supported but the primary objective of the activities, services or project must be to improve the well-being of disadvantaged and/or vulnerable West Yorkshire people.

  • You can read the Sir George Martin Trust’s new Grant Policy which was approved at the 15th March 2024 board meeting SGMT Grant Policy March 2024
  • The Trust will give out grants for running, capital and project costs, ranging from £500 – £5,000 to registered charities, CIOs and churches delivering outreach work who are working to improve the well-being of residents in their local community.
  • Locally based, West Yorkshire charities with an income below £1million are our focus and we are keen to provide extra support and advice to those with an income of around £100,000 who are going through a particularly challenging time.
  • The Trust will aim to be as flexible as possible and a grant can go towards a range of costs, as long as these are detailed in the application. The Trust Manager will talk through your funding needs with you.
  • Charities and churches which do not have a large amount of free reserves and/or assets will be the top priority.

We give to:

  • Children and young people
  • Churches providing local community outreach support to their disadvantaged and vulnerable residents, but activities must be open to all and not promoting religion
  • Community centres and village halls in disadvantaged areas
  • Countryside, environment and green issues involving people in local disadvantaged communities
  • Food provision projects – food pantry and ‘pay as you feel’ models preferred
  • LGBTQ+ communities
  • Mental well-being
  • Music, the arts and heritage involving people in local disadvantaged communities
  • Older people
  • Physical and learning disabilities
  • Social welfare
  • Sports for disadvantaged communities

We don’t give to:

  • Voluntary and community groups which are not a registered charity and do not have a Charity Commission number
  • CICs/Social enterprises
  • Charities that have over a £1m income (based on the last year’s annual accounts)
  • National charities or charities which don’t have their head office in West Yorkshire
  • Appeals that are not focused on West Yorkshire
  • Appeals from individuals seeking grants
  • Applications from overseas
  • Overseas seminars or exchange visits by individuals or groups
  • Medical appeals of a capital or revenue nature
  • Medical research projects
  • Playgroups, nurseries and pre-schools
  • Restoration schemes for churches such as church roofs and spires
  • Schools

We have adopted the above guidelines which follow this broad basis and will, in general, follow these guidelines, although in exceptional circumstances the trustees may deviate from them if a particular cause is of special merit.

For further details on the Sir George Martin Trust please review our latest Annual Accounts Sir George Martin Trust Final Accounts 2023 and our FINAL 2023-24 SGMT Impact Report for an analysis of our grant making during this period.

The Sir George Martin Trust has signed up to IVAR’s eight commitments to adopt more Open & Trusting practices that make life easier for grant seekers and those we fund.

LS-TENwww.ls-ten.org

LS-TEN is the largest indoor skate park in Leeds and houses a small independent school that specialises in supporting young people with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs, as well as running a vast range of youth clubs and lessons in skateboarding, roller skating and BMX. The charity said: “It is hard to measure the incredible difference this project has made to our organisation. The £3,500 grant allowed us to take two cohorts of young people to different skate parks and give them a brand new skateboard...We were able to have discussions with them about skateboarding careers and how you can make a career out of something they love.”

Out Togetherwww.outtogether.lgbt

Aiming to help more LGBTQ+ seniors keep well, have fun and stay connected, this charity had a number of successful groups in Leeds but could see the need to branch out wider and required funding to make this happen. A £3,000 grant from the Trust gave Out Together the boost it needed to do more marketing and start to establish the project across West Yorkshire, providing vital support networks to combat social exclusion, depression and poor mental and physical mental health in older age.

St Stephen’s Church, Bradfordwww.shinewestbowling.org.uk

St Stephen’s Church has been serving the diverse community of West Bowling in Bradford for over 160 years, most recently joining with Shine (West Bowling) in providing services such as a Pop-Up Pantry, advice on budgeting and benefits, parenting support and a variety of services to help with physical and mental health. The Sir George Martin Trust aims to be as flexible as possible with its core cost and capital funding, providing support where it is needed most, especially for 'hard to fund projects'. The Trust gave St. Stephen’s £3,000 to complete a much needed new toilet block within the church.

Growing Workswww.growingworks.org.uk

This Kirklees charity works to tackle isolation and develop social and horticulture skills by providing opportunities to meet people in a relaxed, outdoor environment. They support over 500 people a year at sessions run in Huddersfield, Dewsbury and Batley. Growing Works said: “As a small charity we spend the majority of our time and resources delivering our services and supporting those who attend which leaves little room for reviewing processes, strengthening operating practices and finding ways to develop. The Sir George Martin Trust’s £3,000 supported these crucial back-office functions, enabling us to spend time strengthening and streamlining our administration and reporting processes, as well as allowing us the time to explore the development potential of our main site.”

Empowered Peoplewww.empoweredpeople.co.uk

The Trust has supported this Todmorden, Calderdale charity which is fully volunteer run for the past three years, helping local people with disabilities to enjoy the sport of cycling in the great outdoors. The £2,000 grant went towards the purchase of five new pilot bikes which are attached to a modified recumbent bike (places the rider in a laid-back reclining position) which can be propelled by leg or arm.

CoActive Artswww.coactive.org.uk

The Trust gave £2,500 to this Wakefield-based charity which holds creative activities for local adults with learning disabilities. £1,899 of the funds contributed to core staffing costs for their summer holiday activities and trips, and the remaining funds went towards CoActive’s annual insurance costs. The charity said: “The grant was very timely in enabling us to complete the 22/23 year having met our budget requirements and not carrying forward or needing to use our very modest reserves... The summer programme is essential for maintaining member confidence in the group - it reduced isolation and connected 25 member to other resources in the community.”

The Sir George Martin Trust is committed to transparency and we work with 360Giving to publish information about our grants. Using the 360Giving data standard, our awarded grants since April 2017 are available to review as a xlsx file here SGMT_July-2024-360Giving

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. This means the data is freely accessible to anyone to be used and shared as they wish. The data must be attributed to the Sir George Martin Trust.

We believe that with better information, grant makers can be more effective and strategic decision makers. 360Giving provides support for grant makers to publish their grants data openly, to understand their data, and to use the data to create online tools that make grant making more effective.

For more information, visit http://www.threesixtygiving.org/