Henry Smith Foundation Grants: How Funding Works Now

The Henry Smith Foundation is one of the UK's oldest funders. It was set up in 1628 through the legacy of Henry Smith, a London businessman, and for years was known as the Henry Smith Charity, which is still how many people search for it. It says it awarded £61.9 million in 2024 to organisations across the UK. The way it funds has changed, though. Under its 2025 to 2030 strategy it runs a series of targeted programmes, each with clear criteria and a short window, rather than one programme you can apply to at any time. This guide explains the strategy, how the funds work, what was on offer when we checked and how to be ready for the next one. Everything here comes from the Foundation's own website, checked on the date shown on this page.

What the Foundation funds

The Foundation describes its mission as supporting people who are economically or socially excluded, and those facing adversity, to thrive. It says it does not deliver frontline services itself but supports the people and organisations who do, and it focuses on what it calls life's toughest transitions.

Its strategy names three funding priorities:

• Getting started: supporting families during pregnancy and the first five years of a child's life, so children get a strong start.
• Building independence: helping young people move into adulthood with confidence, skills and hope, including work that joins up services and pushes for better policy.
• Safer futures: supporting people to rebuild their lives after abuse, displacement or prison, including people leaving prison, survivors of domestic abuse and people seeking safety after conflict or persecution.

Within each priority, the Foundation says it runs grant programmes with clear aims and criteria. It funds both frontline support and work to improve the systems that shape people's lives, and it describes its funding as flexible.

If your work does not sit within one of these three transitions, the main strategic programmes are unlikely to fit, and your time may be better spent on a broader funder. Our guide on how to approach charitable trusts covers how to judge fit before you apply.

How the targeted funds work

Each fund has its own page with eligibility, grant size and dates. The funds we looked at shared a pattern:

1. A fixed window. Expressions of interest open on a set date and close a few weeks later, often at 5pm on a Wednesday.
2. An expression of interest first. You submit a short expression of interest, and the Foundation invites some organisations to a full application. Our guide to expression of interest applications explains how to write one.
3. An income band. Each fund sets its own income limits, based on your most recent published accounts.
4. A multi-year grant. Most of the funds we checked offered several years of funding at a fixed amount.

Because the windows are short and the criteria specific, the Foundation suggests signing up to its mailing list to hear when programmes open.

Funds announced in 2026

When we checked, the Foundation said it had a small number of targeted programmes running from its 2025 funds and was launching its 2026 funds, with more to be announced over the coming weeks and months. These examples show the range. All of them were closed to applications when we checked, so treat them as a guide to what future funds may look like, not as open opportunities.

• Early Years Parenting Fund (getting started): £56,250 a year for four years, £225,000 in total, for organisations with an income between £100,000 and £5 million. Expressions of interest closed on 1 July 2026.
• Maternity Equity Fund (getting started): £185,000 over three years for organisations with an income between £20,000 and £1.5 million. The Foundation asks grantees to use at least £2,500 to £5,000 a year of the grant on staff wellbeing, depending on their size.
• Career Ready Fund (building independence): £200,000, at £50,000 a year, for organisations with an income below £3 million. Expressions of interest closed on 2 September 2026.
• Equity in Justice Fund (safer futures): £200,000 for specialist support for racially minoritised young men. Expressions of interest closed on 5 August 2026.
• Welcome for Newcomers Fund (safer futures): £200,000 for welcome support for people new to the UK, including formal partnerships. Expressions of interest closed on 26 August 2026.
• Domestic Abuse: Counselling (safer futures): £250,000, at £50,000 a year, for long-term counselling for survivors of domestic abuse, for organisations with an income below £2 million. Expressions of interest closed on 21 October 2026.

Each fund page sets out more detailed eligibility, such as the type of organisation and the work it must already be doing, so read the full criteria before you start.

Enterprise Gateway: apply through a partner

The Enterprise Gateway Fund is a £6 million, three-year fund to help small voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations and social entrepreneurs develop earned income. Small organisations cannot apply to the Foundation for it directly. Instead, the Foundation is looking for at least four Intermediary Partners, with an income of at least £500,000, who will each receive £500,000 to £1.5 million over three years and then recruit and support participants. The expression of interest deadline for intermediaries is 5pm on Wednesday 25 November 2026. If you are a small organisation interested in taking part, watch for the partners being announced.

Long-standing programmes

The strategy is not everything the Foundation does. It says it also runs the Opportunity Fund, for early-stage work and projects that strengthen the charity sector, which was marked as coming soon when we checked, and several long-standing programmes:

• Holiday Grants: one-off grants of £500 to £3,000 for schools, and for youth groups and non-profit organisations with an income below £2 million, to take children aged 13 and under on a recreational day trip or a residential trip of up to 7 days in the UK, Isle of Man or Channel Islands. It prioritises groups working in the 20% most deprived areas and groups of disabled children. You must apply at least 6 weeks before the trip, and trips with educational, curriculum or religious aims are not funded. The window for trips between October and December 2026 was due to run until 19 November, but the Foundation says the budget has been spent and the programme is now closed, so apply early when it reopens.
• Kindred: grants and support for eligible descendants of Henry Smith.
• Clergy: the Christian Grants programme, which supports initiatives that promote Anglican clergy wellbeing.

How to prepare for the next fund

Because the windows are short, preparation matters more than with a rolling programme.

• Map your work to a transition. Be clear which priority you fit and how your work helps people through that transition.
• Check your income band. Each fund uses your most recent published accounts. Make sure your accounts are filed and up to date.
• Have your evidence ready. A clear statement of need and a short theory of change will help you write a strong expression of interest quickly.
• Have your policies in order. Holiday Grants, for example, ask you to confirm you have a safeguarding policy, that someone is responsible for it, that your board discusses safeguarding regularly, and to upload a trip risk assessment. Our guide to safeguarding policies for grant applications explains what funders look for.
• Sign up to the mailing list. The Foundation says this is how it announces new programmes.

GrantMatch lists open grants from trusts and foundations across the UK while you wait for the next Henry Smith fund. Browse grants for charities, or see live listings for youth grants and community grants in London. Create a free profile and we will alert you when new funds that fit your work open.