R S MacDonald Charitable Trust provides around £3m in grants every year to charities working in Scotland.

The Trust will consider applications for:

• revenue or capital costs
• project funding or core funding
• one off awards (small and main grants)
• multi-year awards for up to 3 years (main grants only)

There is no deadline for their small grants programme, and you can apply for up to £15,000 at any time of year. They do not normally consider multi-year applications under this programme.  The programme typically makes awards to support both:

• Running costs for small, community based initiatives (often which are volunteer led) and
• One-off pieces of work which can help develop a charity, such as the purchase of equipment/infrastructure; the development of partnership work or service evaluation.

The Trust award their main grants twice a year.  These are grants of more than £15,000, and are typically multi-year.  In 2021/22 the average main grant award was £37,000, typically for between £12,000 and £15,000 for three years.  In 2022/23  Trustees will be looking to make more 3 year awards of £15,000 to £17,000 a year if this level of funding is required.  They are still very happy to assess grants up to this figure, if that is a better fit with your costs/funding profile.

The next deadline for your application depends on the theme of your work.

The Trust accept applications for research into neurological conditions, visual impairment or sight loss. If you’d like to apply for a research grant, they suggest contacting the Director to discuss your ideas.

Universities can apply for seedcorn for specific academics, research groups or centres who will carry out research in one of our areas of charitable concern.
Charities can apply for specific research projects that have completed a peer review process.

A small number of strategic grants are made by the Trust each year and tend to be with organisations that have received previous funding from us.  This programme is utilised across all our funding themes, and they will normally invite a charity to speak with us if they identify an opportunity to invest in them, and to develop, through a strategic funding relationship.

The Trust are happy to discuss your idea before you apply.  The request should still fit within one of the funding themes.