About the Trust

The Trust's objective is to distribute grant aid to registered charities working with children and young people in the Edinburgh and Lothian area. Its preferred approach is to fund modestly sized projects or contributions to wider programmes and services where direct positive outcomes for young people can be demonstrated.

The Trustees meet quarterly to review grant applications. Currently around £80,000 is distributed annually, with grants deliberately maintained in the range up to a maximum of £3,000, mainly awarded to smaller locally-based organisations as opposed to larger organisations which have greater resources available for their work.

The intention is to ensure as great an impact as possible across the Lothian geography, and put resources into a wide variety of groups. The types of activity supported are noted in the Our Grants in Action section of this website.

The Trustees welcome grant applications which have innovative ideas designed to make a difference for disadvantaged or excluded children and young people. These can be from new or embryonic organisations, or new schemes from established bodies. Grant aid has been given to support work with disabled young people, projects working in severely deprived areas and with disaffected groups in the community. Young carers, family projects and work with under-represented groups with special needs are examples of some of the activity which is supported.

Successful grant applications are encouraged to provide feedback on the progress of their project or service, and to provide some evidence of the changes that have been achieved for young people.

Visit our Trustees page for further information about our Trustees.

Our most recent accounts are available to download, 2022-23 Annual Report, approx. 3.4 mb