Cole Charitable Trust

The Cole Charitable Trust is an independent grant-making trust dedicated to fostering positive change in local communities through support for small grassroots charities where modest investments yield substantial impact. Rooted in values of community empowerment, social welfare, quality of life enhancement, and pragmatic responsiveness, it embraces a flexible, merit-based philosophy that prioritizes individual project merit over rigid categories, believing transformative change arises from accessible funding enabling local organizations to address immediate needs via community-led action, capacity building, and authentic partnerships amplifying grassroots voices.

It funds social welfare initiatives across all ages, including housing support and homelessness prevention for vulnerable families and individuals facing housing insecurity, community development projects enhancing neighbourhood cohesion and environmental improvements for isolated residents, youth engagement programs such as after-school clubs, mentoring, and skills training for young people at risk of exclusion or unemployment, social inclusion schemes tackling isolation for older people and disadvantaged groups, family support services addressing carer exhaustion and family crises, personal empowerment activities like befriending, peer support groups, and therapeutic community activities promoting mental wellbeing and resilience, and capacity building for small charities delivering day services, outreach, and holistic interventions in social isolation, poverty relief, and community wellbeing, with emphasis on preventative approaches, person-centred care, and early intervention for children, young people aged 5-25, families, elderly, and vulnerable locals experiencing complex needs.

It excludes large building appeals, animal charities, research, further education, and support for individuals, focusing instead on registered small local charities or branches serving grassroots communities in West Midlands urban neighbourhoods, Kent rural areas, and Cambridgeshire locales. Distinctive for its unwavering commitment to micro-grassroots organizations, one-off project and core cost funding prioritizing tangible local impact, rejection of national entities without deep community ties, and preference for pragmatic, brevity-driven cases from lived-experience-led groups driving empowerment in underserved regional pockets.