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Applications Closed

Champions for Children 2024

Applications for our Champions for Children 2024 matched-funding campaign opened on Tuesday, 2 January 2024, and closed on Friday, 9 February 2024. We look forward to reading through your applications!

This year, the campaign will run for two weeks from Tuesday 4 June to Tuesday 18 June 2024. Our goal is to raise even more than last year’s impressive £3,503,225, which impacted 68,000 children living in poverty through 83 projects across London.

If you missed out on this cycle of applications, you may be interested in applying to participate in the Big Give's Christmas Challenge 2024, which The Childhood Trust is proud to be part of as a Champion Funder. Applications for the Christmas Challenge open on Monday, 13 May 2024. More information will be shared on this page closer to May 2024.

Until then, if you want to be part of our empowering charity network and the movement which is breaking the cycle of poverty for children in London, keep scrolling down this page to find out more about our match-funding model and eligibility requirements!

 

Matched-funding Model

25%

The first 25% of project funding is pledged to charities by their major donors ('pledge donors').

What We’re Looking For

We are looking for charities that have an existing supporter base and an appetite to work with us to engage with the general public and existing donors.  In order to be successful in our campaigns, it is helpful for charities to have an active trustee board or major donors who are prepared to make donation pledges to kickstart the fundraising for the project.  

The Childhood Trust has four priority impact focus areas for children:  

  1. Physical Health 
  2. Mental Wellbeing 
  3. Home & Community Environment 
  4. Learning & Work Readiness. 

The Childhood Trust does not fund religious activities or capital costs. 

Read our full grant making policy here: 

Our Grant-making Policy
Charity Requirements

The Childhood Trust funds charities across all 33 London boroughs. We offer charities two funding tracks to become either a Grassroots Partner or Synergy Partner.  

Applications from charities will be streamed by the following criteria:

Please note that charities cannot apply for a TCT grant which exceeds 10% of their last annual income

To be eligible for funding, all partners must: 

  • be registered with the Charity Commission 
  • have one year of filed annual accounts 
  • be able to demonstrate that they are a going concern
  • have strong financial processes and be legally compliant 
  • have a robust governance structure 
  • have solid safeguarding processes 
Project Requirements

The minimum requirements for any project to receive funding are: 

  • Children (0-17 year olds) will be the primary beneficiaries of the funding; 
  • Children living in London will be the primary beneficiaries;  
  • Children experiencing poverty (demonstrated by poverty measures such as IDACI, Free school meals, Pupil premium, low household income) will be the primary beneficiaries. 
  • Our charity partner must demonstrate outcomes against one of our four impact goals: Physical Health, Mental Wellbeing, Home & Community Environment and Learning & Work Readiness 
Apply For Funding

Why Apply

In addition to offering matched funds, The Childhood Trust builds charities’ capacity to run successful fundraising campaigns with:

  • Workshops on how to run a successful fundraising campaign, including topics such as how to formulate your campaign messaging and how to use social media effectively
  • One-to-one support on any aspect of the campaign
  • Connections with other charities working with children and young people across London
  • Raised profile and visibility through broader campaigns, events and other activities to raise awareness of the issues around child poverty and drive traffic to the charities

We also request our charity partners' participation in our other programmes, such as Decorate a Child’s Life, the Bedrooms of London exhibition or The London Child Poverty Summit, amongst others that we are in the process of developing.

Apply For Funding

Application Process

All applications for The Childhood Trust’s campaigns are processed through the Big Give platform. Charities not already registered with the Big Give will have to register in order to apply. The application process comprises the following steps:

1

Charities upload their project details onto the Big Give platform and submit their pledge donations

2

The Big Give and The Childhood Trust carry out checks on applicant charities

3

Funding offers are sent out to successful charities and the campaign begins

Questions?

Please contact our Programmes team.