Burges Salmon Charitable Trust

The Trust supports projects championing children and young people through education interventions such as after-school clubs and literacy programmes. Youth wellbeing services including mental health counselling and food poverty relief are funded, alongside homelessness prevention through outreach and shelter support. Elderly care addressing isolation via befriending and day services, arts and creative programmes building confidence, victim support including counselling for domestic abuse recovery, and community development with peer support groups and employability training for care leavers and disadvantaged youth are also priorities. Interventions favour preventative, community-led, person-centred approaches. The Trust focuses on small to medium grassroots charities serving urban southwest England communities, with particular emphasis on Bristol, and Edinburgh youth facing barriers.

Registered charities based in or serving Bristol, the South West of England, and Edinburgh are eligible to apply. The Trust prioritises small to medium grassroots organisations tackling youth disadvantage, homelessness, elderly isolation, and related issues. Organisations with lived experience leadership and a focus on direct community impact are especially valued. While the Trust has no religious restriction, its funding is reserved for charitable organisations, not individuals.

The Trust does not fund capital projects, seed funding, or strategic capacity building. Instead, it focuses on direct project costs or aligned core costs that yield tangible community benefit. General appeals or national-scale initiatives are unlikely to be supported.

The Trust blends financial grants with staff volunteering and mentoring, reflecting its law firm integration. It welcomes unsolicited applications and provides one-off funding for projects or core costs. Funding decisions are guided by employee-volunteered themes such as 'Fairer Futures for Young People' and 'No Child Goes Hungry', prioritising grassroots partnerships over large-scale programmes.