John Armitage Charitable Trust

The John Armitage Charitable Trust, established in 2000 by John Christopher Armitage, is a UK-based grant-making foundation governed by family trustees from the Armitage and Francklin lineages. Its core mission is to help people help themselves, empowering individuals and communities toward greater self-sufficiency, opportunity, and resilience amid disadvantage. Rooted in values of practical assistance, transformation, and sustainability, the trust adopts a proactive, invitation-only approach, selectively partnering with aligned organizations to foster lasting impact rather than dependency.

It prioritizes UK charities addressing young people's skills, confidence, employability, and resilience; parenting programs for family support; education raising attainment for disadvantaged pupils; mental health prevention and services for youth and vulnerable groups; palliative and medical care via hospices; arts and culture for broader access; and rehabilitation for former offenders, emphasizing employment, housing, and community reintegration. Funding supports projects, core costs, and capacity-building for vulnerable beneficiaries like children, families, those with health needs, and justice-involved individuals, as seen in grants to Prison Reform Trust, Magic Breakfast, Place2Be, and Alliance of Sport in Criminal Justice.

Eligible applicants are UK-registered charities with UK operations (no regional limits), favoring medium-to-large established organizations without strict income thresholds. Unsolicited applications are not accepted, though a brief introductory letter may be sent; trustees invite based on strategic fit. Grants typically range from £25,000 to £250,000 (often £50,000–£200,000 multi-year), decided adhoc at trustee meetings with no fixed deadlines. Distinctive for its social-cultural breadth, transformative core funding, and leverage for independence, it rarely supports capital projects and has no religious restrictions.