Educational Trusts & Charities
Last Updated: April 25th 2023
If you are struggling financially there may also be additional charitable funding for your education or training for which you may be eligible to apply. Most trusts and charities have very specific criteria, such as age, residency, or religion, that you must meet in order to receive their help and competition can be fierce.
There are several different places where you could look for such assistance:
- Turn2us is a charitable service that helps people access the money available to them through grants and other help.
- George Fentham Charitable Trust can provide charitable grants to students who meet the following criteria:
- long term resident of the City of Birmingham
- and be under the age of 25.
- and studying at a college or university.
Applications cannot be accepted from students who live outside the city who are resident in Birmingham purely to attend their course of study at a Birmingham College or University.
- Disability Rights UK are a national charity that provide support and advice to disabled people. Their website contains information on specific Funding from charitable trusts that disabled students can apply for.
- Newman University Careers Service subscribes to The Alternative Guide To Postgraduate Funding Online. This funding database is updated monthly and contains details of over 600 alternative funding bodies which make postgraduate grants. All current students can register for an account.
You might find the following books useful:
Educational Grants Directory (published by the Directory of Social Change)
Available within some public libraries
The Charities Digest (published by Family Welfare Enterprises Ltd)
Available within some public libraries
The Grants Register (published by Macmillan)
Available within some public libraries
How to apply
Once you have identified a potential trust or charity that may be able to assist you, you need to find out more information. Many have set deadlines and application procedures, so you need to establish whether you are within any deadlines and how to apply. If in doubt, the best thing to do is to write to the organisation with some brief details of your situation. If you fit their criteria, they will advise you on how to apply – often by sending you their application form.