How to apply

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

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.

Our funding criteria

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

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.
Activity in locations where involvement in creative and cultural activity is low.

Please note: we can provide pre-application advice but we are unable to provide feedback on unsuccessful applications. Organisations can only apply to the Granada Foundation once in any 12 month period.

It may help you to take a look at past projects that have been successful in obtaining grants from us. A list of grants we have awarded over the last two years are available to view here.

We are unlikely to fund

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

We do not fund

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

Grant amounts

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 £2,500. Larger grants can be awarded if the project is felt to be particularly innovative and imaginative and has a strong artistic or scientific content.

Please note: The above sums are a general guide to our current grant awards. We continue to monitor and review our strategy for grant-making and any future changes will be announced on this page.

How we fund

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.
Generally, our maximum grant is £10,000 and the majority of our grants are under £5,000.
We may offer multi-year grants in exceptional circumstances.
A moratorium on capital grant applications was introduced some time ago but our Trustees reserve the right to relax the restrictions if they feel there are very exceptional circumstances.

Next meeting

Our Advisory Council will meet again this year to consider applications on

Tuesday, 3rd November 2026. If you are invited to make a full application at this meeting, the deadline for returns is Thursday, 1st October 2026.

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. Your completed application should be returned electronically, preferably in PDF format, but Word documents will be accepted if PDF is not possible.

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.

Apply for a grant online

Please use the form below as your initial expression of interest. This is the first stage of the application process. You will receive an acknowledgement to confirm your EOI has been successfully received. If your project and constitution meets our funding criteria you will receive the full application pack which needs to be completed and returned by the deadline date for that meeting.