The John Apthorp Charity

The John Apthorp Charity is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (charity number 1102472).

The John Apthorp Charity exists to help young people, older people, disabled people and the general community in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, in England. It is run by the founder's family in his memory. It gives grants to organisations with charitable status, and it awarded £421,688 in the year covered by its annual report.

Priority Areas

The charity gives grants to registered charities and, exceptionally, to not-for-profit organisations in the process of seeking charitable status, for projects benefiting residents of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. It aims to help young people, older people, disabled people and the general community. It generally funds specific capital projects and one-off purchases of physical assets, rather than core or day-to-day running costs. The asset or works should benefit the applicant charity itself. Requests are considered individually; it looks for initiatives unlikely to proceed without its help and asks applicants to show a genuine need. It favours clear, costed proposals with a meaningful local benefit.

Themes

• Capital projects
• Young people
• Older people
• Disabled people
• General community

Geographic Focus

Hertfordshire; Bedfordshire; Cambridgeshire.

The charity applies directly by email from its own charity email address.

Deadlines: Applications close one month before each meeting.

Application windows:

• Closes on 15 January at 5pm
• Closes on 14 May at 5pm
• Closes on 11 September at 5pm

Who can apply:

• You are a registered charity. In exceptional circumstance we will consider applications from not for profit organisations if you can show that you are in the process of applying for charitable status.
• The application needs to come directly from your organisation and can not be submitted by a third party on your behalf.
• Your request is for a capital project. That is something you purchase with a useful life of one year or more.

What to send:

• State your Charity Number clearly on your application.
• Provide proper breakdowns of the costs involved, with quotes.
• Give details of who is being targeted.
• Include your charity's BACS details with your application.
• Attach any supporting documents.
• If your latest reports and accounts are not on The Charity Commission Website, give a link to where they can be found or attach them.

Applying again: Unless you can show an exceptional need, then we are unlikely to fund you if you have had funding from us in the past two years, even less likely if you have had funding from us in the past year.

What the charity says:

• The charity looks for initiatives that would be unlikely to go ahead without its help.
• Applicants should show that they genuinely need the grant and are viable, without excessive reserves.
• It helps if applicants show that their staff are fully qualified and competent.
• It helps to provide letters of support from prominent organisations linked to the charity that can vouch for its work and the proposed project.
• Applicants are encouraged to submit early so there is time to check the application and reduce the risk of it being held over.