Michael Cornish Charitable Trust

The Michael Cornish Charitable Trust embodies a mission of community responsibility and direct empowerment for vulnerable populations, rooted in values of inclusivity, accessibility, responsiveness to local needs, and practical outcomes that foster wellbeing, social inclusion, resilience, and hardship reduction. Their grantmaking philosophy emphasizes enabling charities through capacity building, core costs support, and revenue funding to deliver sustainable change, believing that strengthening local civil society via targeted interventions for disadvantaged groups—especially children and young people—creates lasting community impact through partnership and evidence of tangible benefits.

They prioritize funding for children and young people facing barriers including care leavers, victims of abuse, and those with chronic health needs like Crohn's disease, colitis, spina bifida, skin conditions, or cancer; disability support for people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, and complex health needs through family support services, respite care via illness-affected family holidays, therapeutic activities, and mental health initiatives such as counselling and peer support groups; amateur sporting initiatives promoting inclusion and physical wellbeing for disabled youth and communities; community development addressing poverty, social isolation, economic hardship, and ex-offender reintegration via outreach, mentoring, training, and befriending; health advancement including advocacy, day services, and holistic interventions for families caring for disabled children or those in crisis. Supported activities encompass direct service delivery like drop-in centres, creative arts, outdoor activities, employment training for youth unemployment, and preventative family carer support to build resilience and prevent isolation.

They exclude large capital projects, retrospective expenditure, statutory duties, and grants for redistribution, focusing instead on revenue, small capital items, and core activities. Distinctive for their local-first commitment to Lincolnshire communities—rural, isolated, and hardship-affected—paired with strong emphasis on children's charities, they favor grassroots organizations delivering person-centred, community-led, trauma-informed services with proven impact on whole-family systems, differentiating through broad yet regionally anchored support for immediate welfare and long-term empowerment.