Prospective applicants are advised, in the first instance, to provide a brief outline of the project for which funding is sought by completing a short enquiry form.

If an application falls outside the Foundation’s scope, a reply to that effect will be sent. If the application is to proceed an application pack will be sent in time for consideration at the next available meeting. Applicants will be advised of the outcome very shortly after the Advisory Council has met, usually within five working days.

The Advisory Council interprets the guidelines in a flexible way, realising that it cannot hope to achieve a true balance across all areas of activity or geographic area. It does, however, examine the context of each application and tries to make grants in areas where the benefit will be most widely felt.

You should meet the following three essential criteria

• Your project or activity is happening in ‘our region’ defined as: Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, Lancashire, Cheshire, High Peak, Westmorland and Furness and Cumberland.
• You are a charitable or not-for-profit organisation
• Your project has already secured some committed match funding or can demonstrate credible plans to apply for other grants

We are looking for

• Activity in locations where involvement in creative and cultural activity is low.
• Proposals that are well planned with clear outcomes and involve professional artists or scientists in their development and/or delivery and are made in our region.
• Projects which demonstrate outstanding merit, originality or significance that encourage the production of creative work or public understanding of the arts or sciences and that reflect the lived experience of the people of our region.
• Proposals that support the public presentation or the development of the work of artists or scientists working in our region.
• Projects which leave a legacy of skills, knowledge or experience.

We expect applicants to demonstrate they are seeking funding from other sources, including other trusts and foundations and crowd-funding. We will not be sole funders of any project and applicants should not expect 100% of funding unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Grant sums of £500 – £10,000 are available. Our average grant currently stands at £2,000. Larger grants can be awarded if the project is felt to be particularly innovative and imaginative and have a strong artistic or scientific content.

Please note: We have taken a decision not to accept any applications for large scale capital projects and will continue to focus our support on our small grants programme as detailed above. We will continue to monitor and review our strategy and any future changes will be announced on this page.

• Projects where the Granada Foundation is expected to be the sole external funder.
• Organisations based outside our region.
• Projects where only very small numbers of people will benefit.
• Organisations that are not primarily concerned with the study, practice or appreciation of the arts or sciences

• Non-constituted or commercial organisations
• Individuals
• General funding appeals
• Activity taking place in educational or care settings with no benefit for the wider public or involvement of artists or scientists

• At present we cannot accept applications for capital projects
• We may offer multi-year grants in exceptional circumstances.
• Generally our maximum grant is £10k and most of our grants are under £5k
• Our funds are always oversubscribed. Sometimes, to demonstrate our support we will offer amounts that are less than the sum applied for and recognise that this may affect the scale or delivery of your project.

Our Advisory Council will hold two meetings to consider applications during 2025. The first meeting date is set for Tuesday, 22nd April 2025 and the deadline for the submission of full applications is Tuesday, 25th March 2025.

The second meeting will take place on Tuesday, 4th November 2025, and the deadline for returning full applications is Wednesday, 8th October 2025.

We appreciate so many have had to adapt to new ways of working to deliver their projects and the creative new platforms that have been found to engage with audiences and communities has been inspiring. We have always welcomed innovative new projects and we intend to continue this tradition to encourage forward thinking applications and support successful applicants however they envisage delivery. We will positively encourage bids from organisations whose projects will not only help to culturally support communities in our region but also support creative talent so badly impacted by the necessary restrictions.

We recognise that many development staff/fundraisers are working from home due to the pandemic restrictions. We have, therefore, digitalised our application process and dispensed with the need for applicants to provide us with hard copies. All applications should now be submitted electronically – both PDF and Word formats are acceptable.

If you would like to apply at our next meeting, please use the enquiry form below.

If you are invited to proceed with a full application, an application pack will be emailed to you. If you experience any difficulties with the on-line form please email brief details of your project directly to [email protected] or call Irene Langford directly on 07876 744 235.

For further information on any aspect of our application process please contact our administrator:

Irene Langford
The Granada Foundation
PO Box 3430
Chester
CH1 9BZ

Mob: 07876 744 235
Email: [email protected]