Rayne Foundation
Overview
Types of work and organisations they fund
They believe that to contribute to lasting social change, they must support creative and collaborative approaches that build and test solutions to some of society’s most difficult challenges.
Funding criteria
As well as being within one of their funding priority areas, the proposed work must meet the following essential criteria:
- Approaches issues differently and enables innovation
- Has potential for wider application beyond the funded proposal
- Is informed by direct delivery and has a clear, positive impact on people’s lives
- Can demonstrate match-funding contributions to the project
And ideally the following three desirable criteria:
- Enables and encourages collaboration between sectors and silos
- Develops best practice and captures learnings to share with others
- Adds to sector expertise and leadership
See Guidelines for further details.
Funding Priorities
The Rayne Foundation makes grants to charitable and not-for-profit organisations across the UK in the following areas:
- Children and Young People,
- Refugees and asylum seekers, and
- People in later life and their carers.
Children and Young People
Over the past five years, the Rayne Foundation has allocated over £3.2 million towards 72 projects to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.
Why they prioritise this area
The increase in poor mental health among children and young people has been well documented. They’ve recognised the need for more preventative work that provides support at an earlier stage. They also understand that certain groups are more likely to experience poor mental health and wellbeing; with, for example, around 60% of children in care reported to have an emotional or health problem.
What they fund
They focus on projects that offer mental health and wellbeing support to children and young people and their families/carers in challenging circumstances and where there is a lack of help.
They fund work that:
- Supports early childhood (0-5 years including the perinatal period) with family/carer interventions that aim to reduce the impact of early childhood trauma.
- Supports children and young people who are care experienced* , on the edge of care**, or leaving care, with interventions that prioritise improved mental health and well-being.
Applications for creative and artistic approaches to achieving progress in this priority area are also strongly encouraged.
Note:
*By care experienced they mean the time spent living with foster carers under local authority care, residential care (e.g. a children’s home), looked after at home under a supervision order, or kinship care with relatives or friends either officially (e.g. under a special guardianship order) or informally without local authority support.
**The Rayne Foundation takes an inclusive approach to this terminology and will be guided by applicants that support children and young people (and by extension their families) with interventions that aim to prevent them from entering care.
Refugees and asylum seekers
The Rayne Foundation has a long history of supporting refugees and asylum seekers.
Why they prioritise this area
Over recent years, many have been displaced from their home countries because of conflict or persecution. A large number of those arriving in the UK are unaccompanied children. Refugees and asylum seekers face many challenges, and their unmet needs are great. Descended from refugees themselves, the Rayne family has a personal interest in giving them a positive future.
What they fund
They focus on opportunities that raise aspirations and add to the positive narrative about refugees’ contributions to society. This means they fund work that’s closely aligned with their criteria of doing things differently, enabling innovation and the potential for wider application.
They fund work that:
- Creates significant new opportunities relating to employability, entrepreneurial endeavours and personal development for refugees and asylum seekers
- Supports the specialised mental health needs of survivors of torture and young unaccompanied asylum seekers. This complements our work in relation to children and young people’s mental health
- Uses the arts and creativity to build community between migrants and the wider community
People in later life and their carers
Since 1962, the Rayne Foundation has funded organisations supporting care for people in later life.
Why they prioritise this area
Research conducted by Age UK has shown that, in the UK:
- Around 1.6 million people aged 65+ have unmet needs for care and support
- Approximately 45% of people over 85 have difficulties with activities of daily living
- 36,000 fewer older people were receiving long-term care from local authorities in 2021 than in 2018
What they fund
They focus on projects and organisations reimagining community provision for people drawing on care in later life. This means they fund work that’s closely aligned with their criteria of doing things differently and enabling innovation with the potential for wider application.
They fund work that meets two or more of the following:
- Driven by collaboration in a particular place
- Connects the dots of care provision for people drawing on care in later life and their carers.
- Increases agency, voice, and visibility of people in later life and their carers.
- Embeds and sustains creativity and the arts in the delivery of care.
The rolling grants programme is open to receive new applications.
Better Careers for Better Care programme
Better Careers for Better Care is their proactive funding programme focused on workforce development within social care. Between November 2023 and January 2024, they ran an open call and have awarded eight grants as part of the programme. The programme is not currently open to new applications. Learn more about the programme here.
Funding Level & Notes
In the past, grants have typically ranged between £10,000 and £30,000 per year but average grant sizes have been increasing over recent years.
The EOI asks applicants to indicate the grant size they are applying for. In the development of a full application, they work with applicants to understand their financial position and the project budget more fully and agree together an appropriate grant recommendation for the Board.
- Grant timelines and budgets will be developed with you as part of the full application and will reflect your needs and context. Meeting complex needs and addressing entrenched social issues takes time, so they usually make multi-year grants.
- As they seek to fund work that does things differently and tests new approaches, their funding frequently covers specific project costs, including salaries and a reasonable contribution to overheads and on-costs. They encourage organisations to take a full cost recovery approach to project budgets.
- Where an organisation is making a step-change in the way that it works or tackles a particular issue, they’re open to funding core costs. However, they don’t fund delivery of day-to-day services or business-as-usual.
- Match-funding can be made up of financial and/or in-kind contributions from other funders or organisations, as well as internal resources and capacity allocated by the applicant organisation.
- Where organisations are applying for project funding, they make a judgment regarding the level of match-funding they expect to see based on the size and capacity of the organisation and the potential of the proposed work to have sustained impact beyond their grant funding.
- Where organisations are applying for funding towards core costs, the annual grant size requested should not represent more than 10% of the organisation’s annual income.