Doors open to new bids for share of around £8.4m a year

Shetland Charitable Trust launches its new-look Main Grant Scheme on Monday with an annual estimated budget of £8.4 million to spend.

The funds are open to local charities offering projects and services to improve the quality of life in Shetland. Trustees are particularly keen to support projects which tackle inequality and social isolation.

Local charities have six weeks to submit bids for a share of the funding for 2021 and beyond with no cap on the amount they can apply for.

The fresh approach is part of the new five-year strategy agreed by trustees last September and seeks to expand and refresh the range of services supported by the grants budget, which has risen from £7.3m last year.

Applicants will be able to seek funding for up to four years, making it easier to plan for the longer term.
Launching the scheme, trust chairman Dr Andrew Cooper said: “Shetland has an extraordinary network of organisations dedicated to helping others and they are having to evolve continually to meet the changing demands of these turbulent times.

“The trust too needs to be able to respond and adjust its grant funding to best serve the community’s needs. We are optimistic that the groups we fund – and others that we haven’t funded before – will come forward with innovative proposals for making Shetland an even better place to live than it is already.”

The Main Grant Scheme is open to organisations with a turnover of more than £50,000 a year undertaking charitable activities in the fields of social care and welfare, arts and culture, heritage and the environment or sport and recreation.

The closing date for applications is 12 noon on Monday 31st August.

Last year the trust paid £7.3m towards the running costs of 13 charitable beneficiaries of which £6.7m went to four major organisations: Shetland Recreational Trust; the rural care model of residential and day care centres; Shetland Amenity Trust and Shetland Arts Development Agency.

Last week the trust also awarded an additional £530,173 to 16 projects to boost services for vulnerable and disadvantaged people during the current financial year.