Open Programme | John Lyon's Charity

Under the Open Programme grantees can request funding for core costs, salary costs, or direct project funding.

If you have not received a multi-year grant from the Charity before, it is likely that a grant of between £10,000-£20,000 per annum for up to three years will be awarded
If you previously have received a multi-year grant from the Charity, grants will typically be above £30,000 per annum with no maximum grant amount. Grants of up to five years will be considered, in consultation with your Grants Manager.

Requests should always be supported by a fully costed budget.

Applications are considered by the Grants Committee and approved by the Foundation Governors (the Trustee) three times a year in March, June and November.

Meetings are always oversubscribed so to ensure your request is considered at a time that would be most appropriate for you, we advise that you are in touch with the Charity as early as possible and at least six months before the next meeting.

Whilst we try our best to process your requests in a timeframe that meets your funding needs, due to demand on the Charity's resources, we cannot guarantee this. In this instance, proposals will be processed at the next available meeting.

How to apply

All eligible organisations are free to apply to the Open Programme. When applying for this grant, you will need to include the following information:

A brief overview of your organisation and what you are applying for
Evidence how this funding will support the life-chances of children and young people
State how much funding is needed in total to run your project and how much you would like to request from John Lyon’s Charity.
Include the project duration (e.g. one year, three years or up to five years)

When applying for funding, we operate a two-stage application process. Before starting an application, please double check your eligibility by taking our eligibility quiz, otherwise please click here to apply for funding.