Charitable Trust Funding Grants.

[notebasher]

I am heading up an appeal for the restoration of this 1892 Binns organ at Shipley in West Yorkshire. http://npor.rcm.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?...ec_index=N00083 It is completely unaltered tonally, but in 1956 the piston action was electrified from composition pedals, and in 1982 the pedal action was electrified. The aim is to restore it without further alteration retaining pneumatic action for the manuals. Reversing the earlier changes would be very costly and frankly, as organist I'm not sure I'd want to go back to unadjustable composition pedals.

 

The question is: what experiences do members have of applying for conservation grants from charitable trusts, any recommendations, anything I should avoid? Reading another post, and listening to others' views it seems for instance that the HLF is a long and tortuous route and it has been suggested that the alterations already done may preclude it from an award. Is this particular one worth pursuing? We do have an offer already from The Pilling Trust, which is very positive, but still have a long way to go.

 

Total cost of the project is expected to be in the order of £50k. Needless to say we've embarked on a series of local fundraising events: appeals, press releases, concerts, recitals (any volunteers?), social events, open day.

 

I'd be very grateful for any practical suggestions and experiences people have about this whole subject.

 

 

 

Ron.

[Malcolm Kemp]

I believe there is a book listing all the charitable trusts and what they give grants for. I'm told thast this is a good place to start.

 

Malcolm

[Barry Oakley]

I believe there is a book listing all the charitable trusts and what they give grants for. I'm told thast this is a good place to start.

 

Malcolm

 

 

If you look on the George Sixsmith & Son Ltd website I believe there are some suggestions with regard to potential sources for grants.

[John Sayer]

I believe there is a book listing all the charitable trusts and what they give grants for. I'm told thast this is a good place to start.

 

Malcolm

 

 

This BIOS site is comprehensive and helpful - Grants

 

JS

[Tony Newnham]

I believe there is a book listing all the charitable trusts and what they give grants for. I'm told thast this is a good place to start.

 

Malcolm

 

Hi

 

Yes - there is such a book (or at least there used to be). IIRC it's called the Directory of Grant Making Trusts - and it's huge and takes a long time to wade through to try and find which trusts might even be interested. I used it once, several years ago. It may well all be computerised these days.

 

Others have mentioned various more directly relevant avenues. the other thing to look for is local trusts - even Bradford council seem to have buckets of money floating around for community projects (but you would have to sell the project as that). Also, (more generally - I don't know of anything in the Bradford area) landfill tax is available for local projects, and local businesses - especially contreversial ones - have a public relations budget. For example, at one time, local churches & charities in one area of Essex obtained substantial funding from the operators of the Bradwell nuclear power station.

 

I've not investigated anything locally (Ron's church is only a couple of miles away from here) because we werein the fortunate position when our organ was restored a couple of years ago (a much smaller instrument than Shipley!) of being able to draw on the church's legacy fund, which along with some donations, has covered most of the cost - the remainder coming from the church's reserves - in the past it was a large, rich congregation)

 

Every Blessing

 

Tony

[Malcolm Kemp]

In anticipation of a long overdue rebuild at my church we were advised by the Diocesan Organ Adviser to keep a record of every occasion on which the organ is used for the benefit of the community. School carols services, concerts, students using the instrument for private practice, demonstrating the organ to the junior church and letting them have a go, outside organisations using the church for rehersals &c., apparently all help the cause of applying for grants. The message, understandably, seems to be if use of the organ is restricted to ordinary services by the parish and the private use of the organist you won't get a grant from a charitable trust.

 

Malcolm

[angwinpeter]

Hi

 

Yes - there is such a book (or at least there used to be). IIRC it's called the Directory of Grant Making Trusts - and it's huge and takes a long time to wade through to try and find which trusts might even be interested. I used it once, several years ago. It may well all be computerised these days.

 

Others have mentioned various more directly relevant avenues. the other thing to look for is local trusts - even Bradford council seem to have buckets of money floating around for community projects (but you would have to sell the project as that). Also, (more generally - I don't know of anything in the Bradford area) landfill tax is available for local projects, and local businesses - especially contreversial ones - have a public relations budget. For example, at one time, local churches & charities in one area of Essex obtained substantial funding from the operators of the Bradwell nuclear power station.

 

I've not investigated anything locally (Ron's church is only a couple of miles away from here) because we werein the fortunate position when our organ was restored a couple of years ago (a much smaller instrument than Shipley!) of being able to draw on the church's legacy fund, which along with some donations, has covered most of the cost - the remainder coming from the church's reserves - in the past it was a large, rich congregation)

 

Every Blessing

 

Tony

The advantage of using the paper version this Directory (held in main reference libraries) is that one can also conveniently see a charity's recent income and expenditure and thus identify those who might not be so over-burdened with grant applications!