Are you eligible?

Greenham Common Trust has wide eligibility criteria in order to benefit the lives of as many local residents who need support as possible. However, the Trust is a charity. This means that it can only give Grant Aid for charitable purposes and you must be able to demonstrate that the grant is going to be used for public benefit. We do not give grants retrospectively.

Charitable Purposes

There are twelve specific headings and one general heading. The general heading keeps within the scope of Charity everything that was currently charitable when the new headings were introduced in 2008.

• The prevention or relief of poverty
• The advancement of education
• The advancement of religion
• The advancement of health or the saving of lives
• The advancement of citizenship or community development
• The advancement of the arts, culture, heritage or science
• The advancement of amateur sport
• The advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation, or the promotion of religious or racial harmony or equality and diversity
• The advancement of environmental protection or improvement
• The relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage
• The advancement of animal welfare
• The promotion of the efficiency of the armed forces of the Crown, or of the efficiency of the police, fire and rescue services or ambulance services
• Other purposes that are currently recognised as charitable or are in the spirit of any purposes currently recognised as charitable

The last heading encompasses many established charitable purposes, for example relief of unemployment, promotion of moral and spiritual welfare, rehabilitation of offenders, and others. It also covers any purposes that might be recognised as charitable in the future.

It is also necessary to be able to demonstrate public benefit. This will be obvious in many cases.

Further clarification can be obtained from the Charity Commission website at www.charity-commission.gov.uk or by calling 0870 3330123.

If you would like to know how these rules might be applied to your own particular project e-mail charitablegrants@greenham-common-trust.co.uk or call Melissa Elliott on 01635 817445 to put your question in person.