The Foundation supports only UK registered charities unless the organisation has "exempt" or "excepted" status - churches, hospitals, educational establishments and housing corporations qualify under these criteria. Please see the appropriate section of the website on Guidelines.

There is no limit on the size of grant. Every application is considered on its own merits as the organisations the Foundation supports vary significantly in size and scope. The Trustees anticipate that charities will have secured a significant proportion of funding prior to applying to the Foundation. There are no formal guidelines on application amounts and organisations are invited to use their discretion.

You do not have to specify an amount – if a grant is possible, the Trustees will make a judgement on how much to award, though please indicate that you are not requesting a specific amount in your covering letter and do ensure you provide a project budget and accounts for your organisation.

There are no formal deadlines for submitting applications and organisations should allow approximately four months for a final outcome, though acknowledgement letters are sent within four weeks. Please note that once an acknowledgement letter has been sent there is typically no further correspondence until the outcome of the application.

With the exception of animal welfare charities, the Foundation supports a wide range of organisations across the UK and the Trustees do not consider one area to be of higher priority than another. The Foundation does not fund individual salaries and positions but will consider making grants towards general / core running costs. The Trustees aim to be as responsive as possible and therefore the decision on what to apply for should depend on the priorities of your organisation.

Please do NOT apply within 12 months of the outcome of a previous application, whether or not you received a grant from that application.

Click HERE for ‘Contact Us’ section of site.

Please click HERE to open a free PDF version of the most recent annual report & accounts. If you would prefer a hard copy then please send a cheque for £15, made payable to the ‘The Garfield Weston Foundation’ to us, click HERE for address.

The trustees are happy to be acknowledged along with other donors – there is no formal logo, but you can use “The Garfield Weston Foundation” on any relevant boards, leaflets & programmes. If you plan to refer to the Foundation in the press we ask that you send a copy of the proposed article to us in advance.

The trustees meet on a regular basis and there are no formal deadlines for submitting applications. The Foundation has a rolling programme and deals with applications in order of receipt.

The Trustees are all lineal descendants of the founder and you can click HERE to open the relevant section of the Annual Report.

WestonFoundation.org is a Canadian charity that provides funding to educational and conservation projects. Although there is some overlap in terms of trustee membership, the two organisations are managed separately.

We do not restrict funding – we support various single and multi faith charities.

The Foundation’s underlying investment is its shareholding in Wittington Investments Limited, a company registered in England. Wittington Investments is the ultimate holding company of Associated British Foods plc, which is listed on the International Stock Exchange, and Fortnum and Mason plc and Heal’s plc.

Due to the volume of applications received the paperwork for unsuccessful applications is not retained and it is therefore not possible to comment in detail on individual cases. The trustees take a range of considerations into account, including such factors as previous grants, costs, available resources, sustainability of the project, and the viability of the fundraising plan. These factors are examples and are not exhaustive and while the Trustees aim to support as many good projects and organisations as possible, it is unfortunately not possible to provide funding to all.

The Trustees have a preference for charities which benefit as many people as possible and may decide against supporting an organisation that deals with a very narrow group. They also favour organisations that are fully inclusive.

The trustees evaluate all applications on their individual merits and award accordingly. Requests for specific amounts will be considered for smaller amounts if the requested sum is larger than the Trustees are able to grant. In some cases provisional grants may be made on a pledge basis and subject to particular condistions, such as alternative funding sources being identified for any shortfall.

A good starting point for UK organisations is the Directory of Social Change's 'Guide to the Major Trusts'. The relevant website is: www.trustfunding.org.uk
A second possible source of help is the following list of the 'top 50' European Trusts produced by 'Philanthropy in Europe' Magazine. Click HERE to open relevant Adobe Acrobat PDF file.

We ask that organisations who receive a grant send us an update on progress after 6 months, and again at the end of the project. If there are any significant changes to the project at any time, please keep us informed.

The Trustees aim to be responsive to the area of greatest need - therefore the decision on what to apply for will depend on the priorities of your organisation - one way to look at this is to ask yourself the question "What would make the most difference" - if your answer to this is funding for core costs then that is what you should apply for, however if your answer is for a specific project, then your application should reflect this.

The Foundation reviews applications in order of receipt in order to be fair - you should allow up to four months from the date of your acknowledgement letter as we receive thousands every year. In exceptional circumstances it is possible for the Trustees to review an application more quickly, however it is important thet there is a clear reason why this might be the case - we aim to be fair to all and are therefore not able to "queue-jump" everyone!

The Trustees recognise that securing funding for core costs can be a particular challenge, they are therefore prepared to accept applications towards the core operational costs of an organisation, which they recognise will often include some employment costs. The Foundation cannot consider requests for specific salaries and positions however, mainly because we do single-year funding and cannot guarantee to provide funds in subsequent years, which would put a position at risk. When the Trustees contribute to core costs, they hope that organisations will ensure that sustainable funds are sourced to retain key people and positions. Grants made for core costs tend to be on an unrestricted basis in order to provide maximum flexibility to the charity receiving the grant.

When we receive your application we check to see that all the information we need has been included - if so, it is logged onto our database and you are sent an acknowledgement letter within 4 weeks. If your application is not complete then we contact you to ask for additional details.

Once you have received an acknowledgement letter there will be no further contact until we write to you with a decision (unless we have additional questions for clarification, in which case we will let you know). Please allow up to 4 months from the date of your acknowledgement letter to receiving notice of an outcome, this is because we receive thousands of applications a year and they are reviewed in order of receipt in order to be fair to everyone. Although it will "go quiet" at this stage, you are not forgotten.

For more details about our application process, please click here.

The Foundation is recognised by UK Inland Revenue as an approved charity for tax purposes (reference number X96978).

Founded in 1958 the Garfield Weston Foundation is a UK based, general grant-giving charity endowed by the late W Garfield Weston and members of his family. In the year to 5 April 2007, the Foundation supported 1,982 applications with grants totalling £41.7 million.

Charities are asked not to re-apply within a twelve-month period of an appeal to the Foundation, whether they have received a grant or not. Grants are normally made by means of a single payment and the Foundation does not normally commit to forward funding.

From time to time, more information about a charity or a visit to the project might be requested. There is no deadline for applications, which are normally processed within three months of receipt. All applicants are notified of the outcome by letter.

Applications are in the first instance screened by the Foundation staff to establish whether sufficient information required has been submitted. Further details are sometimes requested before any further action is taken. At this stage a visit might also be arranged in order to gain greater insight into an organisation.