Check out our Funders in Conversation session with Henry Smith Foundation & Hilden Charitable Trust from Get Grants FREE Virtual Conference 2025.
The Henry Smith Foundation (previously Henry Smith Charity) is one of the oldest and largest grant makers in the UK. They make grants for work throughout the UK, supporting organisations and their leaders with bold ideas dedicated to making social change now.
Main Grants
These are themed grants within three priority areas:
- Getting started – Supporting families to give their young children a strong start.
- Building independence – Helping young people move into adulthood with confidence, skills and hope.
- Safer futures – Supporting people to rebuild their lives after abuse, displacement or prison.
In each of these priority areas Henry Smith Foundation run grant programmes with clear aims and criteria. You can see which programmes are currently open on their website.
Get Grants Top Tip
Henry Smith Foundation offer large, often unrestricted grants that are an attractive opportunity. They also have very specific criteria on what they want to fund. If you’re not what they’re looking for, don’t apply! If you are what they’re looking for, work carefully to make sure you clearly address each of their criteria in your application. For this reason, these are one of the popular requests for our application review service.
Holiday Grants
Grants of £500 – £2,750 supporting fun, enriching experiences for children aged 13 and under, available to Schools, youth groups and UK-based non-profits. Groups working in the 20% most deprived areas of the UK will be prioritised.
View our full Henry Smith Foundation Holiday Grants post here.
Applications are open throughout the year and you must apply at least 5 weeks before the trip. Exact timeframes and more details can be found on their website.
Heritage Programmes
There are also 2 Heritage programmes:
Each of the grant programmes have specific areas of interest and specific guidelines as well as different deadlines and application forms. There is detailed information covering all of this available on the foundation’s website
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