Trust for London
London is a deeply unequal city. We’re empowering people with the funds and the facts to change that. Each year we support hundreds of civil society organisations working across our capital to build a fairer city.
Overview
Total reviews: 1
Median 50 hours
Latest Reviews
Oct 27, 2025
applied in 2021
Read the criteria fully before applying, do not cheat on the eligibility qualifier as this will not help you in the long run. Be truthful to yourself not chase the money.
Once you get past the eligibility part then the application form is clunky and needs a lot of information. Text boxes are word count limits, write in word first and then copy and paste. Try and add some quantitative data with figures you are trying to achieve with some outcomes. If you can get some case studies this will help strengthen your applications. Saying all this I still was not successful. Sometimes Trust for London only concentrate on inner London Boroughs and are not thinking or inviting outer London boroughs to apply which is frustrating. Also they are not heavy on infrastructure future which is not helpful.
What is your relationship with the funder for this experience?
Applied and not funded
If you were funded tell us the outcome
What year was this experience?
2021
How would you rate this funder's accessibility?
Average
Sometimes the application is restricted only to certain boroughs, or they are asking to fund certain criteria of demographics. As a volunteer centre we engage all members of the community and pigeon holing people to fit a funding criteria is bias in my opinion and marginalising society even further. Especially Volunteer Centres who are not front line operations we help other charities gain valuable volunteers to support those font line services - again marginalising us as an organisation from applying and helping our citizens become volunteers who may be from all demographics in society.
How successfully do you think this funder is accomplishing its goals as a funder?
Average
I think they have their favourites, and stick to what they know tried and tested. They need to be a bit more adventurers and they would enjoy the process more. By helping people outside the box reaches those seldom heard voices that need funding the most. Again not thinking of the outer London Boroughs as much as inner which I think they fund more. To be honest, I don't know anyone who has been funded by Trust for London outside of the Covid period - it would be good to know who they have funded in recent years.
Tell us one thing that this funder does really well
they update their newsletter regularly and circulate this in good time. However, it appears to be very samey and it would be good to have really impactful news, who they have funded, where and when. I like the fact that its a Trust for London specific as London desperately needs funding, however it needs to more fairly distributed.
If you had one piece of advice to give to this funder (about grantmaking or anything else), what would it be?
I can understand grantmakers what to make an impact and showcase who they have funded and therefore if they have big named charities this is going to give them Kudos! how about making a bigger impact by saying we have support 100 smaller/medium charities who have an income of under £500k with vital funds to keep their charities going. Make a showcase about supporting the little people that make the biggest impact to our communities. Larger charities get all the glory whilst smaller ones actually undertake most of the support for citizens in their community. What a story and headline that would be rather than seeing big shiny logos on their webpage of all the well known charities - what a great talking point to say why the chose that particular smaller charity and the impact the funding is going to have. I know bigger charities that wont get out of bed for less than £50k where £20k for smaller charities is a lifesaver.
How was your relationship overall with the funder?
Average
Is there anything else that's be useful for others to know to understand this funder?
they have improved their website a lot and its clearer who they will fund, but social injustice and ending poverty is more than just supporting those organisations directly, volunteering is a stepping stone into employability but they not thinking outside the box and will not fund for this. Volunteering also engages migrants and asylum seekers and again we are overlooked because we don't fit into their visionary boxes.
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Oct 27, 2025
applied in 2021
Read the criteria fully before applying, do not cheat on the eligibility qualifier as this will not help you in the long run. Be truthful to yourself not chase the money.
Once you get past the eligibility part then the application form is clunky and needs a lot of information. Text boxes are word count limits, write in word first and then copy and paste. Try and add some quantitative data with figures you are trying to achieve with some outcomes. If you can get some case studies this will help strengthen your applications. Saying all this I still was not successful. Sometimes Trust for London only concentrate on inner London Boroughs and are not thinking or inviting outer London boroughs to apply which is frustrating. Also they are not heavy on infrastructure future which is not helpful.
What is your relationship with the funder for this experience?
Applied and not funded
If you were funded tell us the outcome
What year was this experience?
2021
How would you rate this funder's accessibility?
Average
Sometimes the application is restricted only to certain boroughs, or they are asking to fund certain criteria of demographics. As a volunteer centre we engage all members of the community and pigeon holing people to fit a funding criteria is bias in my opinion and marginalising society even further. Especially Volunteer Centres who are not front line operations we help other charities gain valuable volunteers to support those font line services - again marginalising us as an organisation from applying and helping our citizens become volunteers who may be from all demographics in society.
How successfully do you think this funder is accomplishing its goals as a funder?
Average
I think they have their favourites, and stick to what they know tried and tested. They need to be a bit more adventurers and they would enjoy the process more. By helping people outside the box reaches those seldom heard voices that need funding the most. Again not thinking of the outer London Boroughs as much as inner which I think they fund more. To be honest, I don't know anyone who has been funded by Trust for London outside of the Covid period - it would be good to know who they have funded in recent years.
Tell us one thing that this funder does really well
they update their newsletter regularly and circulate this in good time. However, it appears to be very samey and it would be good to have really impactful news, who they have funded, where and when. I like the fact that its a Trust for London specific as London desperately needs funding, however it needs to more fairly distributed.
If you had one piece of advice to give to this funder (about grantmaking or anything else), what would it be?
I can understand grantmakers what to make an impact and showcase who they have funded and therefore if they have big named charities this is going to give them Kudos! how about making a bigger impact by saying we have support 100 smaller/medium charities who have an income of under £500k with vital funds to keep their charities going. Make a showcase about supporting the little people that make the biggest impact to our communities. Larger charities get all the glory whilst smaller ones actually undertake most of the support for citizens in their community. What a story and headline that would be rather than seeing big shiny logos on their webpage of all the well known charities - what a great talking point to say why the chose that particular smaller charity and the impact the funding is going to have. I know bigger charities that wont get out of bed for less than £50k where £20k for smaller charities is a lifesaver.
How was your relationship overall with the funder?
Average
Is there anything else that's be useful for others to know to understand this funder?
they have improved their website a lot and its clearer who they will fund, but social injustice and ending poverty is more than just supporting those organisations directly, volunteering is a stepping stone into employability but they not thinking outside the box and will not fund for this. Volunteering also engages migrants and asylum seekers and again we are overlooked because we don't fit into their visionary boxes.