More than 300 charities are to benefit from a £18m fund to help charities tackle Covid-19 income losses.

The Charity Survival Fund is being offered by the Julia and Hans Rausing Trust and has been almost doubled from its initial size of £10m “due to the quality and quantity of the applications, said a statement from the Trust.

In July the Trust announced it had received more than 2,500 applications for the funding.

The funding is aimed at small and medium sized charities to overcome lost income during the pandemic.

In total 329 charities will receive a share of the fund, this includes 15 charities whose annual income is less than £20,000 a year. More than 170 charities with an annual income of £500,000 are also included.

We are delighted to announce that through the Charity Survival Fund, we will be supporting over 300 #charities right across the UK, with an increased total of £18 million on the initial £10 million announced in July. https://t.co/AOGnSNm1Yl pic.twitter.com/7zsB8h8aqX

— Julia & Hans Rausing Trust (@JHRTrust) September 30, 2020

Funding has been prioritised within the Trust’s areas of interest, covering health and wellbeing, welfare and education and arts and culture.

More than £11m will go towards supporting health and wellbeing, with charities in this sector seeing particular increases in demand amid the pandemic while income has fallen.

“We were overwhelmed by both the quality and quantity of applications we received for the Charity Survival Fund. It highlighted to us the perilous state that so many amazing charities have found themselves in due to the loss of day to day income caused by the coronavirus pandemic,” said Julia and Hans Rausing.

“It is because of this need that we increased the funding available through the Charity Survival Fund to £18 million, and we are pleased that this funding will enable so many extraordinary charities to continue their excellent work and support their local communities at this difficult time. We would like to thank every organisation that applied, and we hope the Charity Survival Fund will encourage others to support charities in need.”

Charities to benefit

Among charities to benefit are Northern Ireland based Kinship Care, which helps grandparents with caring duties.

“The past few months have been tough going and this grant means the world to us,” said Kinship Care chief executive Jacqueline Williamson.

“We will be able now to continue supporting kinship carers and their youngsters in Northern Ireland and plan ahead knowing that our Kinship Care Centres are safe and our most basic costs have been taken care of.”

Another is Brighton based Fresh Start Portslade, which runs youth work training and community projects.

“After six years in the heart of Portslade, we had established some excellent free community projects,” said Fresh Start Portslade project worker John Shepherd.

“These had been funded – in part – by operating surpluses from our community cafe; which was wiped out overnight in March of this year.

“The funding from Julia and Hans Rausing will fill this void, allowing us to continue our work, help our local community, and plan with confidence to continue next year and beyond as a viable charity.”

This was the first time the Trust, set up by Swedish philanthropist Hans Rausing and his wife Julia, has been open to funding applications from charities.

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