To be eligible, applicants must:
- Be a local community group, charity, voluntary group or social enterprise that has a positive impact on communities, people or the environment.
- Have an average income of less than £50,000 in the last 12 months.
- Have a bank account in the organisation’s name.
How It Works
Grants for Good Fund splits £60,000 of funding each year between twenty charitable organisations.
The funding is awarded on a regular basis, with £15,000 allocated between five shortlisted projects every three months -a grand total of £60,000 every year.
In order to engage John Good Group employees in our charitable activity, every team member gets to vote on how much each charity will receive.
PLACE
£5,000
PLACE
£3,500
PLACE
£2,500
PLACE
£2,000
PLACE
£2,000
When is it awarded?
As we’re sure you can imagine, Grants for Good receives a lot of attention from charities and community projects based near and far. As a result, we receive multiple applications and it can take the team at the Matthew Good Foundation a long time to process them. This means that we can’t commit to a specific date when the funding will be awarded, but we do aim to do so within three months of the deadline for each round.
16 December –
15 March
Applications for funding awarded in May
16 March –
15 June
Applications for funding awarded in August
16 June –
15 September
Applications for funding awarded in November
16 September –
15 December
Applications for funding awarded in February
The Selection Process
Step 1
Longlisting
At the end of each application window, the panel at the Matthew Good Foundation and the People Planet Champions at John Good Group process all of the applications into a longlist. The longlisted organisations are then contacted and we explain the next stage of the process.
This is where we get to know your organisation a little better by approaching your named referee for a reference, holding a very informal, short meeting with you (usually via video call) to discuss your project further, and conducting our due diligence checks.
Step 2
Shortlisting
The People and Planet Champions at John Good Group will decide on the final five projects to receive a share of £15,000. Congratulations – at this point, the Foundation will be in touch to let you know you have successfully made the shortlist and will be awarded an amount between £2,000 and £5,000.
If you didn’t make the shortlist, the Matthew Good Foundation will email you to let you know. The panel is committed to efficiency and fairness, so your application will be kept on file and considered in future rounds. The only reason to apply again in the future would be if your project requirements change and you are still eligible for a grant.
Step 3
Employee Voting
The Matthew Good Foundation will use all of the information gathered from your project to build a feature page on their website (which they will send to you for approval). This is then shared with our employees at John Good Group so that they can vote for their favourite.
Voting takes place internally at the John Good Group and the results will not be visible until the end of the vote.
Step 4
Results
As soon as the vote closes, the Matthew Good Foundation will let you know the outcome of the vote and transfer your funding award. Both John Good Group and the Foundation will announce the shortlist and winners on our public platforms, which will help to raise awareness of your charity or community project even further.
Step 5
Going Forward
After the results have been announced, the Matthew Good Foundation will contact you a few times in the years following your funding award to check on the progress of your project and discuss any key achievements and milestones. This helps our teams to measure the impact of our funding and gives us the opportunity to share any good news from your organisation.
Making the most of your application
Whilst applying is a quick and easy process, you will still need to make your application stand out amongst the many we receive for every round.
To help you write a winning application, here are some top tips that will make it shine:
Top tip: Prove Scalability
One of the major reasons we target funding at small charities is because of the potential they have to grow their impact. Tell us what your aims are and prove to us that there’s a need for your charity to grow.
Top tip: Show Strong Leadership
Maybe you have a deep personal reason for working in this area, or perhaps you have a wealth of experience that makes you very effective at what you’re doing. Strong leadership is crucial, so don’t be afraid to tell us exactly why you personally are going to make this project a success.
Top tip: Share Your Story
Every charitable project has a story to tell, so this is where you share yours. We want to know why the project was started, how things have developed, and what the funding will enable you to achieve in the future.
Top tip: Highlight the Impact
Many funders ask for a lot of detail about impact because they have to prove the return they get on their investment. Whilst complicated impact statistics are not required for Grants for Good, we do need to know the outcomes you expect to achieve from the funding.
Be as specific as you can and try to give figures that relate to the funding amounts we award (£2,000 – £5,000). For example, if helping one person might cost £100, you could help 20 people with our smallest grant or 50 with our largest.
Ready to submit an application?
Click below to fill in the form! Applications can’t be saved and returned to later, so please make sure you are ready to complete it in one go. You will then be sent a copy of your application and any updates via email.
