Old Burial Ground Estate

Old Burial Ground Estate is a Quaker charitable trust established in 1965, rooted in early 20th-century schemes to relieve needs within the Society of Friends. Its core mission centers on preserving and maintaining Quaker Meeting Houses—primarily Kingston Quaker Meeting House and others in the Kingston & Wandsworth Area Meeting and South London Area Meeting—while providing targeted support for Quaker members facing poverty, sickness, old age, or educational needs for their children. Guided by Quaker values of simplicity, integrity, fellowship, and community care, it stewards endowed resources through a small board of trustees appointed by local Meetings, emphasizing responsive, governance-led aid to sustain worship spaces and spiritual activities for over 600 members and attenders.

The funder prioritizes capital works like building repairs, maintenance, accessibility upgrades, and operational costs for Meeting Houses in Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Surrey, Sutton, and Wandsworth. It also supports spiritual, educational, and relief efforts exclusively for Quakers, such as grants to Epsom and Kingston Meeting Houses, fostering ongoing worship and mutual aid rather than expansive programs.

Eligibility is highly restrictive: only Quaker Meeting Houses and community members in the specified south/southwest London boroughs qualify, with a preference for small, local grassroots activities; no income thresholds are set, but it targets modest-scale needs. Unsolicited applications are not accepted—grants are awarded discretionarily via trustee recommendations from local Meetings, with no public forms or deadlines. Meetings occur ad hoc, 2-4 times yearly, yielding typical one-off grants of £2,000–£20,000.

Distinctively specialized, it excludes non-Quaker causes, broad social projects, or national organizations, focusing solely on Quaker infrastructure and welfare in its geographic remit, ensuring careful, faith-aligned stewardship without open calls.