The Pilgrim Trust

Charity Number: 206602

Annual Expenditure: £3.0M

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Quick Stats

  • Annual Giving: £3 million
  • Success Rate: 20-25% (1 in 4-5 applications successful)
  • Decision Time: Quarterly (March, June, September, November)
  • Grant Range: £1,500 - £150,000 (varies by programme)
  • Geographic Focus: UK-wide (some programmes regionally focused)

Contact Details

  • Website: www.thepilgrimtrust.org.uk
  • Email: info@thepilgrimtrust.org.uk
  • Phone: 020 7834 6510
  • Online Application System: Flexigrant portal (thepilgrimtrust.flexigrant.com)
  • Pre-application Advice: Recommended to contact before applying, particularly for Preservation & Conservation grants

Overview

The Pilgrim Trust is an independent charitable foundation established in 1930 by American philanthropist Edward Stephen Harkness with a £2 million endowment, prompted by his admiration for Great Britain's contribution to the First World War. The Trust gives around £3 million annually in grants to UK charities and public bodies focusing on preserving the UK's heritage and bringing about social change. The founding trustees embraced independence and experimental philanthropy, a philosophy that continues today. The Trust operates with a total return investment approach allowing both income and capital to support activities, with increasing focus on ESG investments. Under Director Sue Bowers (who joined from the National Lottery Heritage Fund in 2020), the Trust emphasizes being “flexible, unbureaucratic, collaborative and pioneering.” The organization works across the UK, particularly encouraging applications from under-funded regions, with grants often serving as catalysts to attract additional support.

Funding Priorities

Grant Programs

Young Women's Mental Health Programme

  • £60,000 - £100,000 over three years
  • Geographic focus: North East England, Yorkshire and Humber (previously also Northern Ireland and North West)
  • For charities with turnover £100k-£1 million, operating 3+ years
  • 31% success rate at Stage 1, 52% at Stage 2 (2024 data)
  • £5 million committed over five years (2021-2026)
  • Two-stage process: Stage 1 telephone conversation with Grants Manager

Preservation and Conservation Programme

  • Main Grant Fund: £5,000+ (average grant £25,000)
  • Small Grant Fund: up to £5,000 (4-week decision time)
  • Two-stage application process via Flexigrant
  • Four focus areas:
  • Historic buildings and structures
  • Places of worship
  • Care of collections and objects
  • Archives Revealed (partnership programme)

Archives Revealed Programme

  • Individual cataloguing grants: up to £50,000
  • Consortium grants: up to £150,000
  • Partnership with National Archives, Wolfson Foundation, and National Lottery Heritage Fund
  • Only UK grant programme dedicated to cataloguing archival collections

Research, Advocacy and Development Fund

  • Supports systemic change, policy development, and sector strengthening
  • Strategic interventions in Trust's areas of interest

Priority Areas

Social Welfare:

  • Young women's mental health (ages 16-25)
  • Age and gender-informed mental health services
  • Women-only safe spaces
  • Services involving those with lived experience
  • Culturally sensitive, community-embedded provision

Preservation and Scholarship:

  • Significant historic buildings, structures, and architectural features at risk
  • Conservation of works of art, objects, records, and collections
  • Archive cataloguing projects
  • Buildings of outstanding importance

Cross-cutting priorities:

  • Projects encountering difficulty raising funds elsewhere
  • Projects making significant impact in their area
  • Under-funded regions across the UK
  • Collaborative approaches and strategic partnerships

What They Don't Fund

  • Individuals
  • Retrospective grants for contracts already let or work completed
  • Unrestricted core funding
  • Community Interest Companies not limited by guarantee
  • Organizations without clear public benefit and good governance
  • Multiple applications from same organization simultaneously
  • Projects that are identical to previously rejected applications
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Governance and Leadership

Director:

Sue Bowers joined the Pilgrim Trust in 2020 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, where she was Director of Investment and Head of the National Heritage Memorial Fund. She states: “We aim to be flexible, unbureaucratic, collaborative and pioneering.”

Chair and Trustees:

  • James Sassoon - Chair of Sir John Soane's Museum Trust and President of China-Britain Business Council
  • David Barrie - Former Diplomatic Service member and former Director of the Art Fund
  • Matthew Garvin - Chief Executive of Windmill Hill Asset Management (WHAM), investment manager for three Rothschild family charitable foundations
  • Cullagh McGuinness - Former voluntary sector youth worker, Trust Manager for Millfield House Foundation

Team:

The Trust operates with a small, friendly team of six people who work closely together to run the organization and manage grant programmes.

Strategic Partners:

The Trust collaborates with major heritage organizations including National Churches Trust, Association of Independent Museums, Churches Building Council, National Manuscripts Conservation Trust, Architectural Heritage Fund, Theatres Trust, The National Archives, Wolfson Foundation, and National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Application Process and Timeline

How to Apply

Preservation and Conservation Grants:

  • Must apply within 12 months of Stage 1 approval
  • Decisions made quarterly at trustee meetings

Young Women's Mental Health Grants:

  1. Complete eligibility quiz
  2. Stage 1: Book telephone conversation with Grants Manager to discuss proposal
  3. Stage 2: If invited, submit full application

Small Grants (£5,000 or less):

  • Single-stage application
  • Response within 4 weeks

Application Method:

  • All applications must be submitted online via Flexigrant portal
  • Paper applications not accepted
  • Only one application considered at a time per organization

Decision Timeline

  • Small Grants (≤£5,000): 4 weeks
  • Main Grants (>£5,000): Quarterly trustee meetings in March, June, September, and November
  • Stage 1 responses: Within 4 weeks
  • Stage 2 to decision: Quarterly cycle

Success Rates

  • Overall: 20-25% (1 in 4-5 applications successful)
  • Young Women's Mental Health 2024: 31% at Stage 1, 52% at Stage 2
  • Trust receives approximately 350 full applications annually
  • Approximately 90 grants awarded per year

Reapplication Policy

  • Cannot reapply for exactly the same project if rejected
  • May reapply with revised proposals
  • Must contact Grants Manager or Director before reapplying
  • All unsuccessful applicants receive feedback
  • No specified waiting period for revised applications

Application Success Factors

What the Trust Values:

The founding trustees embraced independence and experimental philanthropy. Today's Trust prioritizes:

  • Projects that have difficulty raising funds from other sources
  • Applications demonstrating significant impact
  • Collaborative approaches and strategic partnerships
  • Organizations from under-funded regions

Direct Advice from Leadership:

Sue Bowers, Director: “We aim to be flexible, unbureaucratic, collaborative and pioneering.” The Trust emphasizes a simple application process and provides feedback and advice to both unsuccessful and successful applicants.

Successful Project Examples:

Recent grants demonstrate the Trust's priorities:

  • Charing Archbishop's Palace (Kent): £4,500 to stabilize Great Hall, allowing time to explore further funding
  • Crystal Palace Park Trust: £30,000 for restoration of listed dinosaur sculptures (London)
  • Refugee Women Connect's Sisterhood Youth: Mental health support for young women asylum seekers and refugees
  • Garlogie Mill (Aberdeen): £4,500 for specialist surveys for Scotland's oldest beam engine
  • Ouseburn Trust (Newcastle): £1,500 for metal detecting survey to locate historic Victoria Tunnel rail tracks

Key Application Elements:

For Young Women's Mental Health:

  • Must directly engage with young women aged 16-25
  • Offer age and gender-informed services
  • Provide safe, women-only services
  • Involve lived experience in service design
  • Create integrated mental health support
  • Be community-embedded and culturally sensitive

For Preservation & Conservation:

  • Demonstrate significance of building/collection/archive
  • Show the building/collection is at risk
  • Evidence attempts to secure other funding
  • Explain how grant will be catalytic
  • Include professional surveys and expert assessments

Funding Flexibility:

  • Grant amounts may be less than requested if Trust determines a smaller amount can still make useful contribution
  • Can tailor funding to include project delivery costs, core costs, salaries, and running costs
  • Staff and Trustees may visit projects
  • Willing to fund initial exploratory and project development work as well as capital works

Standing Out:

  • Contact the Trust before applying (explicitly recommended)
  • Demonstrate alignment with under-served regions or communities
  • Show how the grant will attract additional funding
  • Evidence collaborative partnerships
  • Align with strategic partners' areas of expertise
  • Demonstrate potential for systemic change or policy influence

Key Takeaways for Grant Writers

  • Two-stage process requires patience: For main grants over £5,000, expect 4 weeks for Stage 1 response, then up to 3 months for quarterly decision at Stage 2. Plan applications accordingly.
  • Success rate is competitive but reasonable: At 20-25% overall success rate, applications are competitive but significantly better odds than many major funders. The Stage 2 success rate of 52% for mental health grants shows strong Stage 1 applications have good chances.
  • Pre-application contact is recommended, not optional: The Trust explicitly encourages contacting them before applying, particularly for Preservation & Conservation grants. Use this opportunity to test fit and strengthen your approach.
  • Catalytic funding is key: The Trust prioritizes grants that unlock other funding sources or make significant impact. Demonstrate how their relatively modest grant (average £25,000) will leverage additional support or enable transformational change.
  • Flexibility and collaboration are core values: Director Sue Bowers emphasizes being “flexible, unbureaucratic, collaborative and pioneering.” Applications should reflect collaborative partnerships and innovative approaches rather than rigid conventional projects.
  • Under-funded regions and difficult-to-fund projects are priorities: If your project has struggled to secure funding elsewhere or operates in an under-served region, this should be highlighted as a strength, not a weakness.
  • Feedback is guaranteed: All unsuccessful applicants receive feedback, and revised proposals can be resubmitted after consultation with staff. Use rejection as an opportunity to strengthen and reapply rather than as a final answer.

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