Granting Process

We have tried to keep the application process clear and simple and avoid unnecessary effort on the part of hard-working charities, understanding that a significant portion of effort & focus within these critical organisations is often spent fundraising.

As such, for each round of grants (once or twice per year), we create a shortlist of 8-12 organisations or projects from which we select 3-5 recipients based on a simple, up to 500 word application.

We hope that this reduces unnecessary work on your part and on the part of other similar organisations.

For our part, we carry out our research using charities commission data, 360 giving data as well as our own personal experiences and connections to generate a long list and agree, through discussions as a board of trustees what the shortlist will be, who will be invited by direct email to apply for a grant.

What we are looking for

The Green Hat Foundation was established to support charitable organisations & projects through grants with a focus on addressing poverty and the wealth gap, in particular amongst young people.

In each round, we are looking to find 3-5 worthwhile projects to grant a total of around £20k-50k. We will judge the applications on the basis of the points below. You do not need to meet all of them, but whichever of the below they do meet will make the project more attractive.

We are looking for projects which:

• Addresses poverty & wealth gap
• Provides educational / personal development support
• Tests something innovative
• Begins something which is scalable
• Unlocks more funding / matched fundingIs focused on the young (28 or younger)
• Engages the well-off with poor on an equal footing

..from organisations which:

• Are well run with strong governance
• Have a clear long term vision
• Are ambitious and aiming to grow their impact
• Have a strong, loyal team
• Are open minded & willing to collaborate

We are also aware of some of the challenges of running charities, the time & effort in grant applications and administration and the power of collaboration between organisations, so should there be projects which help charities in general or which help groups of charities be more effective, we are keen to hear about these, too.

Application Process

In the interests of keeping a simple application process, we look for your answer to a simple question about how you would propose to use a grant and what it would mean to you. Here was what we asked in the December 2021 round:

If we were to grant you £10,000 before the end of this year, how would you use it and what difference would it make to the objectives of the Green Hat Foundation?

If you wish to include the ways in which the project would address the specific items we are looking for (listed above) in your commentary, that might be helpful, but we would expect answers of no more than 500 words overall (though we won’t actually be counting them!).