We Care for the World We Move

• Grass roots programs that broadly engage their communities to make positive and sustainable change to their natural and social environments. 
• Community innovation large and small at any stage that has the potential for transformative social, economic, and environmental impact. 
• Climate Adaptation and Management. 
• Activities that promote healthy ecosystems of marine and land-based habitats. 

• Organizations that are political or religious in nature. However, religious organizations engaged in non-religious initiatives may be considered. 
• Core k-12 education curriculum in public, private, or charter schools. 
• Individuals or crowdsourced fundraising for individuals. 
• Annual fundraisers or event sponsorships. 
• Sporting teams or events. 
• Scholarships. 

• Mid-project or semi-annual site visits by a World Group Foundation program manager. 
• End of grant or annual written monitoring report on project progress against the proposed plan. 
• End of grant or annual financial statement detailing financial activity related to the grant and the organization. 
• Recognition of the grant award in published materials, website, and other media related to the charity and the specific project. 

All funding requests are by invitation only.  If you are interested in funding opportunities, email us at info@worldgroupfoundation.org with a short description of your project.  We will respond to learn more regarding potential projects that meet our interest, priorities, guidelines, and current capabilities.  This is the true beginning of the relationship.  For charities that we formally ask to apply for funding, the following process applies.  Please note that a request for a grant application by World Group Foundation is not a decision to fund. 

• Step 1: Pass an eligibility test.  We will send potential grantees a set of questions that ensure your organization and project meet our eligibility requirements.  You can review the eligibility form here.  If you are eligible to apply for funding, you will receive a grant application form.
  
  
• Step 2: Complete the grant application form.  We consider grants on a rolling basis with regular grantmaking meetings, so there are no deadlines. Once you have submitted your application it will be assigned to the next available meeting. If you are applying for a project with a firm start date, please ensure you submit the application at least four months before the project is due to begin.
  
  
• Step 3: Add attachments to the application form when you submit your request.  We ask applicants to attach the following:  
  • a copy of their charity’s latest independently examined or audited accounts. If your charity is too new to have these, a copy of a bank statement will be fine.  
  • Project budget. 
  • Any other materials that will add weight to your request.  

Please submit the application form and all attachments at the same time.   

• Concise, clear applications are more compelling. 
• Please avoid jargon or buzzwords.
• How does the project move the mission of the organization.
• Please tell us the needs/ issues that the charity addresses generally and the project specifically. 
• How you intend to tackle these, and why you think your approach will work. 
• Please address in detail the scope and scale of your work (specifically what will be delivered, who will benefit, and how), the time it will take, and how you will measure success.  
• Explain the potential risks associated with the project and the risk management plan of the organization to mitigate them. 
• Please provide comparative information that puts statistics in context. 
• Facts and figures should be supported by references.  
• For any project-related initiatives such as capital works, land purchase and other large projects, please let us know which other funders or donors will be involved.  
• Provide an overview of your organization: when it was established, staff numbers, how many members or regular volunteers you have, transport links, whether you charge for services/entry and (where appropriate) the overall number of beneficiaries the charity supports.  
• If the financial information shows a large surplus or deficit, or unrestricted reserve levels outside of the charity’s reserves policy, please explain why this is the case.  
• We are interested in funding sustainable programs.   
• For social programs, please let us know how many people the project/charity will support, and for how long; referral pathways and links to other organizations; the number of contact hours people will receive and what follow-up contact they can expect. We understand that it can be difficult to involve hard-to-reach beneficiaries in monitoring processes, so it is useful for us to know how the charity will approach this.  
• For environmental programs, please tell us how much (if any) land or property the charity owns and/or manages. How will you engage relevant stakeholders, for example farmers, landowners, or the local community?  If public engagement is encouraged, how can people access the site? What facilities are available? How does the site/work relate to the wider landscape and how it will be protected? 
• If the project involves people from disadvantaged backgrounds, please show how the charity will remove barriers to engagement, such as by providing transport, proper clothing, or training.  It is also good to know what additional benefits the work might have.  
• For work that focuses on community engagement, please outline the specific groups or individuals with whom you plan to work, what kind of activities will be delivered, and your organization’s experience of working with these groups. For skill development projects, please outline what the training or development opportunity proposed will entail, how you will identify and engage those who would benefit from this opportunity, and what opportunities there might be following training.  
• For capital projects, please provide early-stage feasibility studies, community engagement reports, site plans, projected community impact of work, and Capex budgets for ongoing maintenance and support.  

We will Acknowledge receipt of a completed request.  After that, you may not hear from us again until you receive a decision.   All correspondence is sent to the email address on the application form, so please double check that you have inputted this correctly and let us know straight away if you need to make any changes by emailing info@worldgroupfoundation.org so we can update our records.  

Once you have submitted your application it will be assigned to the next available meeting of the grant review committee.  We sometimes request an informal video call with charities as part of the assessment process.  In some cases, we will make a site visit to the organization.   

We will notify you by email if your funding request has not been successful. We do not, as a rule, offer specific feedback to unsuccessful applicants.  Please see below for details about why applications are unsuccessful.  

Successful applicants will receive an email informing them of our Board of Trustees’ decision.  If your charity is awarded a grant, you will be asked to send us your charity’s bank account details by completing our Bank Detail Form. You will also be asked to submit a copy of a recent bank statement and provide confirmation that you accept our standard Terms and Conditions on behalf of your charity.  

Grantmaking is a relationship between grantor and grantee.  We take this relationship seriously.  To that end, we look forward to monitoring the grant process in a positive and collegial way, including: 

• Semi annual or project mid-point site visit by a World Group Foundation program manager. 
• Maintaining a reciprocal flow of information regarding: 
  • Changes in project scope, schedule, and/or budget. 
  • Changes in point of contact information. 

The point of the site visit is not to micromanage.  It is meant to be a mutually beneficial meeting that will yield good stories, project enhancement, and additional relationship building in support of the project, the charity, and World Group Foundation. 

We firmly believe in the potential to develop a positive relationship between World Group Foundation and its grantees.  A primary reason for receiving grants on an invitation only basis is to identify and fund projects that have the prospects of long-term success as a partner of the foundation.  However, some grant requests will be denied.  Common reasons for unsuccessful grants because of the grant review process include: 

• The scale and scope of the work was not clearly explained or quantified. 
• Outcomes and evaluation measures needed to be more clearly articulated. 
• Demand for the service was not sufficiently demonstrated. 
• The amount requested, or overall project cost, was disproportionate to the scale of the intervention, or its anticipated long-term impact. 
• Important additional information was not included with the application, such as budget information, most recent accounts, plans and designs for capital projects. 
• Facts and statistics cited were confusing, did not relate to the work proposed, or were presented without context or comparative data. 
• The activities involved in the work were not clearly explained, or the work itself was not defined. 
• The organization holds a high level of free reserves (above its reserves policy) without supplying a satisfactory explanation. 
• An issue arises through the due diligence process. 
• The application process was not followed.