The Central Lakes Trust is here to give a ‘helping hand’ to organisations and groups who service a need in the community. This need must be ‘charitable’ (in its legal sense), which means that your organisation or project must be connected in some way with welfare, education or religious activity, or have some other purpose which is generally beneficial to the community.

These areas are legal definitions and are compliant with both the Charitable Trust Act 1957 and the Income Tax Act 1994.

You must qualify under one of these four areas before the Trustees can consider your application for funding.

Please note that sport does not qualify as a charitable purpose, although providing public recreational facilities may in some cases be deemed to be charitable, depending upon individual circumstances. In these cases, it’s a good idea to telephone the Trust staff to discuss it.

A ‘helping hand’ means that unless the circumstances are exceptional, the Trustees will not fully fund a project. The Central Lakes Trust is here to make a contribution alongside your own fundraising efforts and grants provided by other Trusts and funding organisations.

All grants are paid by electronic transfer into an applicant’s bank account. This is undertaken at the end of each month. Requests to uplift grants must be received at the Trust office by the 20th of the month.

If the Trust allocates a grant to your project, you will have a period of between six months and one year to write back to the Trust to advise that you are in a position to uplift the grant. Six months is the standard period, but in the case of particularly large projects, applicants will be allowed up to one year to uplift their grant.

Recipients who do not request their funding within the period specified are at risk of having their grant withdrawn. However, the period in which your grant is available to be uplifted can be extended in special circumstances, and you should contact the Trust staff if you require an extension.

The Trust will usually require applicants to have full funding in place for their project before the Trust’s contribution will be made available.

Applications are made on the Central Lakes Trust application form. They are available online, by telephoning the office on 0800 00 11 37, or at the following places: