ISEAL Alliance
At a glance
Key takeaways
- The Fund suits collaborative projects that test new ideas, tools or approaches for sustainability systems and fit one of its stated themes: equity and livelihoods in sustainable value chains, landscape and jurisdictional approaches, or livelihood improvements and sustainable land use for smallholders.
- Only an Expression of Interest submitted by an ISEAL Community Member is accepted, so an organisation outside the ISEAL Community needs a Member who will submit it, partner actively if funded and link the project to the ISEAL community.
- Typical grants fall between £9,000 and £66,000, with a median of £45,000 and a largest of £75,000, so a request in that region fits the usual pattern, though the band is typical rather than a limit.
- Each grant call has its own closing date and the source gives no recurring month, so check the current call before planning, and frame the proposal around the Fund's stated success factors: learning, replicability, partnership and high expected impact relative to investment.
- Its published information does not say how competitive the Fund is, and the annual report shows grants mainly in England and Ghana, which is a pattern rather than a rule.
Overview
ISEAL Alliance is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (charity number 1199607).
The ISEAL Alliance is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Its ISEAL Innovations Fund provides grants for collaborative solutions that strengthen the effectiveness and credibility of sustainability systems and help them operate at scale. The Alliance was co-founded with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), and the Fund has awarded grants for over 100 projects across diverse geographies and sectors. The charity's annual giving is £1,478,000.
What they fund
Priority Areas
The ISEAL Innovations Fund provides grants for collaborative solutions that strengthen the effectiveness and credibility of sustainability systems in addressing critical sustainability challenges and operating at scale. It supports institutional grantees, primarily ISEAL members, and brings the ISEAL Community and partners together to test ambitious approaches and share learning. The Fund's stated themes include improving equity and livelihoods in sustainable value chains, landscape and jurisdictional approaches, and livelihood improvements and sustainable land use for smallholders. Its projects explore data and technology, risk-based assurance, producer needs and impact at landscape level. The Fund values innovation and learning, relevance to its objectives, replicability across systems and regions, stakeholder engagement where applicable, partnership, and high expected impact relative to investment.
Themes
- Equity and livelihoods
- Landscape and jurisdictional approaches
- Smallholder land use
- Data and technology
- Risk-based assurance
- Producer needs
Geographic Focus
No geographic focus is stated; the annual report shows grants mainly in England and Ghana.
What they don't fund
- ISEAL Innovations Fund only: EOIs not submitted by an ISEAL Community Member
How to apply
For an Innovations Fund grant, an organisation submits an Expression of Interest through an ISEAL Community Member. The project may be led by any organisation, including one outside the ISEAL Community, but the submitting Member must actively partner if funded and link the project to the ISEAL community.
Deadlines: Each grant call has a closing date; the source does not establish a recurring month or date.
Application success factors
What the charity says:
- Projects test new ideas, tools or approaches and generate learning.
- Projects contribute to the Innovations Programme's overall objectives.
- Projects have high potential for replicability across systems, sectors and regions.
- Where applicable, projects show strong stakeholder and participant buy-in and engagement.
- Projects capture and share learning, lessons and outcomes, including through monitoring and reporting indicators.
- Projects take a partnership approach and engage with other sustainability systems or coordinate with related tools and frameworks.
- Expected impact, including learning value, is high relative to investment.
Where they fund
Where its grants have gone
- Ghana
- England
Similar funders
Funders supporting work similar to ISEAL Alliance.
Grants
How much do they typically give?
Share of 35 grants in year to 31 December 2024 by size
Median £45,000 (year to 31 December 2024)
The largest grants to organisations in this funder’s latest annual report:
- Fairtrade International · Piloting Data Ownership with Cocoa Cooperatives in Ghana£75,000year to 31 December 2024
- Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials · Impact incentive market signal research£70,000year to 31 December 2024
- Union of Ethical Bio Trade · Botanicals premiums for local livelihoods£70,000year to 31 December 2024
- Better Cotton Initiative · Geospatial Information Technology for Outcome Verification (GIT4OV) paving the way to improve smallholder livelihoods£66,000year to 31 December 2024
- Monterey Bay Aquarium · Worker Engagement in Seafood: identification, assessment and recommendations for improvements to worker engagement mechanisms in fishing, aquaculture and seafood processing£65,000year to 31 December 2024
- Aluminium Stewardship Council · CARE: Collective Action for Recycling and Empowerment£60,000year to 31 December 2024
- Better Cotton Initiative · ReACT – Resilience through Collective Action, Sustainable Healthcare Access for Cotton Smallholder Farmers£59,000year to 31 December 2024
- Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance · FPIC and Audit Accountability: improving assessment processes to reflect Indigenous Peoples’ rights in transitions minerals supply chains£54,000year to 31 December 2024
Grant examples taken from the funder’s filed accounts.
3 years of accounts
| Financial year | Income | Expenditure | Grants paid | Accounts document |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| year to 31 December 2022 | £3,030,000 | £3,035,000 | £540,000 | Accounts for year to 31 December 2022 |
| year to 31 December 2023 | £4,181,000 | £3,820,000 | £462,000 | Accounts for year to 31 December 2023 |
| year to 31 December 2024 | £6,149,000 | £5,922,000 | £1,478,000 | Accounts for year to 31 December 2024 |
Income vs grants paid
IncomeGrants paid
Total value each financial year
Grants paid stayed within income across the 3 years shown.
- Grants paid, year to 31 December 2022; year to 31 December 2023: grants to institutions, as reported on the charity register (Part B).
- Grants paid, year to 31 December 2024: grants paid out in the year.
Figures from the charity’s filed accounts and its register entry. The document icon links to the charity’s entry on the Charity Commission register, where its filed accounts can be found.
Sources
Registers and filings
Other sources
- isealalliance.org
- isealalliance.org/innovations-fund · read on 30 October 2026
- isealalliance.org/sustainability-news/beyond-certified-supply-chains-iseal-innovations-fund-call-eois · read on 30 October 2026
- isealalliance.org/innovations-fund/explore-projects · read on 30 October 2026
- isealalliance.org/contact-us · read on 30 October 2026
- Annual report (year to 31 December 2024)
This profile draws on the funder’s own website as well as its filed accounts.
Sources last checked on 30 October 2026.
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At a glance
Applying to ISEAL Alliance?
Hinchilla drafts your answers around this funder's priorities, using your organisation's own documents.
No credit card required
Contact
- +44 (0)20 3246 0066source
- info@isealalliance.orgsource
- membership@isealalliance.orgsource
- training@isealalliance.orgsource
- communication@isealalliance.orgsource
- compliance@isealalliance.orgsource
- The Green House, 244-254 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9DAsource
- isealalliance.org
Applying to ISEAL Alliance?
Hinchilla drafts your answers around this funder's priorities, using your organisation's own documents.
No credit card required
Contact
- +44 (0)20 3246 0066source
- info@isealalliance.orgsource
- membership@isealalliance.orgsource
- training@isealalliance.orgsource
- communication@isealalliance.orgsource
- compliance@isealalliance.orgsource
- The Green House, 244-254 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9DAsource
- isealalliance.org