Our Grants for Organisations

Overall aim

The education* of persons under the age of 25 who need financial assistance. *we interpret the word ‘education’ broadly.

Preferred Areas of Impact

• Access and Thrive – Projects which increase the ability of young people who live in our Area of Benefit and are in need of financial assistance – to access and make the most of education.
• International Links – Projects which promote, encourage, enable, create, support, provide or maintain links, friendships, discussions, debates and/or other forms of joint activities or meaningful contact between young people who live in our Area of Benefit and are in need of financial assistance – and young people from other parts of the world.
• Arts and Culture – Projects which promote, encourage, enable, create, support, provide or maintain access to or participation in the arts and/or in cultural events/activities for young people who live in our Area of Benefit and in need of financial assistance.
• Science and Technology – Projects which promote, encourage, enable, create, support, provide or maintain access to or participation in the fields of science and technology for young people who live in our Area of Benefit and are in need of financial assistance.
• Additional Challenges – Projects which promote, encourage, enable, create, support, provide or maintain access to and benefit from education for young people who live in our Area of Benefit, are in need of financial assistance and are facing additional challenges in life. *NB – your project can fit with this ‘Preferred Area of Impact’ alone or can fit with this plus one or more of the others listed above.

Your beneficiaries must live within our area of benefit

• The City of Norwich

and the parishes of:

• Costessey
• Hellesdon
• Catton
• Sprowston
• Thorpe St. Andrew
• Corpusty

Applying for a Grant

Pre-application meetings: All applicants must have a meeting with our Chief Executive or our Grants Manager (preferably in person over a cup of coffee) prior to applying for a grant.

Important details:

• There are 20 pre-application meeting slots available on a first-come, first-served basis for each grants meeting.
• The purpose of the pre-application meeting is to discuss your proposed application, to (hopefully) confirm that your project/organisation is eligible to apply, and then to support you in making the best possible application.
• Please refer to the chart below for important dates and how to request your pre-application meeting.

Important:

Requests for pre-application meetings submitted before the specified date and time or sent to an incorrect email address will be deleted.

Please send your request to one email address only — sending multiple copies or copying in other inboxes may delay the processing of your request.

Overall aim

The provision of housing accommodation for, and the relief of, persons who are in financial need, hardship or distress, or who are in financial need and sick, convalescent, disabled or infirm by relieving their suffering or assisting their recovery.

Preferred Areas of Impact

• Roofs and Support – Projects which make a significant contribution to the provision of housing accommodation for people who are in financial need and resident in the city of Norwich. This includes projects relating to the accommodation itself and projects providing support to those in need of, or living in, such accommodation.
• Money – Projects which make a significant contribution to the quality of life of people who are in financial need, financial hardship or financial distress and are resident in the city of Norwich. This includes projects directly addressing financial issues and projects providing respite from financial issues.
• Health – Projects which make a significant contribution to relieving the suffering or assisting the recovery of people who are in financial need, resident in the city of Norwich and are sick or convalescent. This does not include projects relating to the provision of private health care.
• Discrimination, Exclusion and ‘Difference’ – Projects which make a significant difference to improving the quality of life of people who are in financial need, resident in the city of Norwich and experiencing lack of equality of opportunity and /or discrimination as a result of being disabled or Deaf, or of identifying/being seen as identifying as being ‘different’ from the majority.

Your beneficiaries must live within our area of benefit

The City of Norwich

Applying for a Grant

Pre-application meetings: All applicants must have a meeting with our Chief Executive or our Grants Manager (preferably in person over a cup of coffee) prior to applying for a grant.

Important details:

• There are 20 pre-application meeting slots available on a first-come, first-served basis for each grants meeting.
• The purpose of the pre-application meeting is to discuss your proposed application, to (hopefully) confirm that your project/organisation is eligible to apply, and then to support you in making the best possible application.
• Please refer to the chart below for important dates and how to request your pre-application meeting.

Important:

Requests for pre-application meetings submitted before the specified date and time or sent to an incorrect email address will be deleted.

Please send your request to one email address only — sending multiple copies or copying in other inboxes may delay the processing of your request.

******** 2026 Norwich Freemens Charity Procedure Change ******

There is a change in the Pre-Application Meeting Request process. This change applies only to The Norwich Freemen Charity, see full details below:

Priority funding areas

• Organisations applying ‘must‘ demonstrate an ‘educational benefit‘ of the project which they are applying for funding for (with the term ‘education’ being interpreted reasonably flexibly) or that the project concerns the provision of facilities for recreation  and other leisure time occupation, or that it makes a significant contribution to the cultural life and general benefit of the inhabitants of our ‘Area of benefit’

Your beneficiaries must live within our area of benefit

The beneficiaries of the project you are applying for must live within a 20-mile radius of the City of Norwich Guildhall.

Applying for a Grant

Pre-application meetings: All applicants must have a meeting with our Chief Executive or our Grants Manager (preferably in person over a cup of coffee) prior to applying for a grant.

Important new details:  

• There are 20 pre-application slots available for each grants meeting.  However, due to overwhelming demand for these slots, and to be as fair as possible to all applicant organisations, we have changed the procedure for securing one of these slots to the following.
• You will see from the chart below that there is a 15-minute window during which we must receive your email requesting a pre-application meeting.
• All emails received from organisations to the correct address (see chart below) during this window will have their names put into a digital ‘hat’ from which we will draw a random 20.  These 20 will be invited to a pre-application meeting.
• If, following your pre-application meeting, you apply and are successful in receiving a grant or pledge of any size, you cannot then re-apply to Norwich Freemen’s Charity for the following three meetings.

• Important:

Requests for pre-application meetings submitted before the specified date and time or sent to an incorrect email address will be deleted.

Please send your request to one email address only — sending multiple copies or copying in other inboxes may delay the processing of your request.