Sir Halley Stewart Trust

Charity Number: 208491

Annual Expenditure: £1.3M

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Quick Stats

  • Annual Giving: £1,291,853 (charitable activities expenditure 2024/25)
  • Success Rate: 10% (approximately 1 in 10 applications funded)
  • Decision Time: 3-4 months (meetings held in February, June, and October)
  • Grant Range: £5,000 - £60,000 (exceptionally up to £80,000)
  • Geographic Focus: UK-based charities (projects can be UK or international)

Contact Details

Website: www.sirhalleystewart.org.uk

Email: email@sirhalleystewart.org.uk

Phone: 020 8144 0375

Pre-Application Support: The Trust strongly encourages prospective applicants to contact them to explore project suitability and timing before starting an application.

Overview

The Sir Halley Stewart Trust, established in 1924 and celebrating its centenary in 2024, is a family grant-making foundation supporting innovative research and pioneering developments that prevent (rather than alleviate) human suffering. With total income of £1.71 million (year ending March 2025) primarily from investments, the Trust awards approximately 25-30 grants annually totaling around £1 million across three priority areas: Medical, Social, and Religious, with education as a central cross-cutting theme. Underpinned by Christian values but welcoming applications from other faith and non-faith projects, the Trust positions itself as a “first funder” for catalysing and under-funded causes, filling critical funding gaps for exploratory research that larger funders typically won't support. The Board of Trustees comprises direct descendants of Sir Halley Stewart alongside experts in the diverse fields the Trust supports.

Funding Priorities

Grant Programs

Main Grants: £5,001 - £60,000 (exceptionally up to £80,000)

  • Can be spread across one, two, or three years
  • Maximum £30,000 per annum
  • Paid in annual installments subject to satisfactory progress and reporting
  • Applications through three-stage process (Eligibility Test, Expression of Interest, Full Application)
  • Trustee meetings held three times annually (February, June, October)

Small Grants: Up to £5,000

  • Should cover entire project or be the major funding contribution
  • Made in one-off payment
  • Same three-stage application process

Priority Areas

Medical: Practical medical projects capable of clinical application within five-to-ten years. May include social or ethical elements. Recent examples include AI-assisted detection of acute deterioration in hospitalized children and reducing maternal deaths from infection in Malawi.

Social: Innovative and catalysing projects supporting under-funded causes with lower public profiles. The Trust acts as a “first funder” for pioneering work. Recent examples include rural immigration advice in Northern Ireland, therapeutic interventions for autistic children, and support for LGBTQI+ asylum seekers.

Religious: Ground-breaking, practical ecumenical projects in the UK. Primary commitment to advancing Christian religion but welcomes applications from other faith communities. Recent examples include support for Jewish prisoners, multifaith collaboration, and faith-based counseling programs.

Cross-cutting themes: The Trust welcomes projects that relate to more than one priority area, with education as a central theme across all three.

Eligibility:

  • Social applications limited to organizations with annual income up to £3,000,000
  • Must be service-delivery charitable organizations (can partner with academic institutions)
  • Trust normally prefers to fund at least 50% of total project costs

What They Don't Fund

  • Running costs of established organizations or ongoing projects
  • Projects from large well-funded charities
  • Personal education fees or taught course fees (except senior researchers seeking funds for postgraduate student research)
  • Completion of projects or PhDs initiated by other bodies
  • Grants directly to individuals
  • Donations to general appeals
  • Purchase, erection or conversion of buildings, or other capital costs
  • Retrospective funding
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Governance and Leadership

Chair: Mrs Theresa Bartlett, BSc Hons (great, great granddaughter of Sir Halley Stewart)

Vice Chair: Louisa Elder (daughter of Lord Ian Stewartby and great, great granddaughter of Sir Halley)

Trust President: Celia Atherton (also chairs the Social Sub-Committee)

Honorary Treasurer: Mr Andrew Wauchope (oversees investment portfolio)

The Board includes direct descendants of Sir Halley Stewart, experts with special experience in Social, Medical and Religious fields, and individuals with appropriate financial expertise. The Trust operates through specialized committees for each priority area, with a Finance Sub-Committee meeting quarterly with financial advisors.

Trustee perspective on the Trust's unique role: Professor John Armour from the University of Nottingham explained: "If we'd gone to major funders… they'd have said, 'Come back when you've established the basic facts.' They're not interested in exploratory bits and pieces. That was the conundrum we had. We didn't know if we were on to anything unless we did a certain amount of work, but how would we get that certain amount of work paid for? There was a gap which the Sir Halley Stewart Trust helped us out of."

Application Process and Timeline

How to Apply

Three-stage application process:

  1. Eligibility Test: Complete online to determine if project meets basic criteria
  2. Expression of Interest: Submit form if eligibility test passed. Trust reviews and advises if suitable to progress
  3. Full Application: Invited applicants receive link to online application form

Applications submitted via online portal at www.sirhalleystewart.org.uk

Decision Timeline

  • Trustee meetings held three times annually: February, June, and October
  • Meetings 'closed' to submissions at discretion of Trust once capacity reached
  • Approximately one month prior to relevant Trustee meeting, applicants receive final notification either that proposal will be considered by full Board or that proposal has been unsuccessful
  • Trust may request additional information during assessment
  • Total timeline typically 3-4 months from Expression of Interest to decision

Success Rates

  • Approximately 10% success rate (1 in 10 applications funded)
  • Trust awards 25-30 grants annually from approximately 250-300 applications
  • Total annual funding approximately £1 million
  • Trust receives many more applications than it can fund, even from eligible organizations meeting all criteria

Reapplication Policy

Information about reapplication after unsuccessful applications is not publicly specified. For multi-year grants, the Trust may consider:

  • Renewing support for a third year
  • Follow-on Main Grant after Small Grant completion

Prospective applicants should contact the Trust directly to discuss reapplication policies.

Application Success Factors

Essential Requirements (Non-negotiable)

  1. Equality, Diversity, and Safeguarding: “Evidence of strong Equality, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EEDI), together with appropriate Safeguarding, are fundamental requirements for applications to be successful.”
  1. Strong Dissemination Plans: “All Trust funded projects must have strong dissemination plans to ensure positive impact on immediate beneficiaries, service-delivery partners, wider stakeholders and policy-makers.”
  1. Robust Evaluation Plans: “Appropriate evaluation plans must also be integral to project designs, with demonstrable outcome measures and longer-term impact aims capable of monitoring and measurement.”

Innovation and Pioneer Status

All grants must fall under:

  • Innovative research projects: Those which explore and test new ideas, methods, approaches, interventions and/or devices
  • Pioneering/ground-breaking development projects: Those which are original and represent the first of their kind and/or lay the foundations for further developments

Strategic Guidance

Pre-application contact highly recommended: “The Trust strongly encourages all prospective applicants to contact them to explore the suitability of a project and the best time to apply, before starting an application.”

What Trustees welcome:

  • Projects relating to more than one priority area
  • Innovative and imaginative people, often promising young researchers
  • Opportunities to maintain contact as researchers' careers progress
  • Projects demonstrating path to becoming self-supporting

Application preparation: Prepare application with those directly involved in project delivery, not solely administrative staff.

Recent Successful Projects

Medical:

  • University of Cambridge: AI-assisted change-point models for detecting acute deterioration in hospitalized children (£57,494)
  • Women's & Children's Health: Saving mothers from infection after birth in Malawi (£64,364)

Social:

  • Vineyard Compassion: Pilot local immigration advice in rural Northern Ireland (£60,000)
  • Transforming Autism Project: Online therapeutic early interventions for autistic children (£45,000)
  • Open Clasp Theatre Company: 'Rupture' play co-created by mothers in prison (£14,000)
  • The Bytes Project: Research on community ownership of youth programmes in Protestant areas of Northern Ireland (£15,000)

Religious:

  • University of West London: Supporting equitable prison environment for Jewish prisoners (£59,150)
  • Lifeline Community Projects: Accelerating multifaith cross-sector collaboration (£57,890)

Key Takeaways for Grant Writers

  1. Position as exploratory/pioneering work: The Trust fills the gap that major funders won't touch—early-stage, exploratory research before “basic facts” are established. Emphasize innovation and being “first of its kind.”
  1. Prevention over alleviation: Frame projects around preventing suffering rather than simply alleviating it. This is fundamental to the Trust's mission since 1924.
  1. Make pre-application contact: With only 10% success rate, discussing project suitability and timing before applying significantly improves chances.
  1. Demonstrate dissemination and evaluation rigor: These aren't optional extras—they're fundamental requirements. Show clear plans for impact beyond immediate beneficiaries to influence policy-makers and wider stakeholders.
  1. Embed EEDI and safeguarding from the start: Don't treat these as compliance boxes to tick. Evidence of strong Equality, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, plus appropriate safeguarding, are essential for success.
  1. Be a small-to-medium charity with big ideas: Social applications must be from organizations with income under £3 million. The Trust seeks under-funded causes and acts as “first funder.”
  1. Plan for sustainability: Show how the project can become self-supporting or lead to further developments—the Trust wants to catalyze innovation, not fund ongoing operations.

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