Essentia Foundation
| Grant size | Up to £3,000 |
| Area |
All of Scotland
|
| Key dates | |
| Fund Opens: | 21/10/24 |
| Application Deadline: | 25/11/24 |
| Decision to applicants: | February 2025 |
About this fund
The Essentia Foundation is a charity that once operated Health and Social Welfare telephone counselling and information services supported by data processing and analysis in the field of public information. Their clients included HEBS, the Scottish Government, the Department of Health and the Central Office of Information as well as pharmaceutical companies. When the company was sold, the Essentia Foundation was established.
The Foundation provides financial support to charities and community groups to help achieve the following objectives:
- Improved health and social welfare of children and young people up to the age of 25 years old.
- Increased opportunities for training, enhancing learning, upskilling, and developing career opportunities, and supporting young people up to the age of 25 years old to move towards employment.
To learn more about the Essentia Foundation, please visit their website.
Purpose of this fund
This is 12 month, small grants funding round and grants of up to £3,000.00 are available.
The fund is looking for projects that:
- Support the participation in mainstream society for individuals with learning disabilities or long-term life limiting health conditions
- Support young people who face long-term challenges living in poverty and inequality.
- Support those who have been excluded from school to access or return to education or training opportunities
- Provide skills and training to those who are furthest from the labour market
- Aim to improve the health and welfare of children and young people (being those under 25)
Please note the above are all in relation to supporting young people up to the age of 25 only.
Additional criteria
Groups can only apply for funding for a maximum period of 12 months. The maximum grant available is £3,000.00.
The fund can only support applications where the grant request is at least 25% of total costs. Please do not apply to this programme if your project as a whole exceeds £12,000.00.
Please note, this fund is only open to organisations with an annual income of under £250,000.
This current funding round has around £80,000.00 for grant distribution. As a result, this is a highly competitive fund, with around 20% of applicants receiving funds.
Who can apply?
All applicants must meet Foundation Scotland's Common eligibility criteria, please check this list before starting your application.
What can’t be funded?
Please read through What we can't fund page, these exclusions apply to all Foundation Scotland funds.
In addition, the Essentia Foundation cannot support the following:
- Projects benefitting those over the age of 25 years old.
- Standalone costs for small capital or equipment costs.
- Grant requests that are less than 25% of the total project cost.
- Applications from individuals or private businesses.
- Organisations with an annual gross income of more than £250,000.
How are decisions made?
Funding is allocated based on decisions by Essentia Trustees with support from Foundation Scotland.
For more details on our assessment processes please visit How funding decisions are made.
Frequently asked questions
-
Do I need match funding?
No, the programme can fully fund applications to 100% however if the cost of the overall project is higher than the maximum grant size you will of course require additional funding and we will look to see if this has been secured or where else you have applied as part of our assessment process.
-
Do you fund capital costs?
No. The programme is for thematic projects that will work to empower young people under the age of 25 in Scotland.
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I am in receipt of an Essentia grant that has not yet been fully spent, can I apply?
Organisations will only be able to apply to this funding round on the provision that any existing grant with The Essentia Foundation has been fully spent and a final report has been submitted.
Contact information
Central Systems Support
Mercedes Jones, Funds Adviser
Useful links
If you would like to watch an interactive webinar which provides a breakdown of the multi-year awards, please click here.
More Essentia Fund case studies
Read a further selection of case studies detailing some of the projects and activities that have received funding from the Essentia Foundation. This includes a grant to People Know How and their Computer Delivery project. The foundation awarded a grant of £2,500 which helped People Know How to distribute digital equipment to vulnerable communities within Edinburgh and East Lothian.
