Essentia Foundation

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.