Funding

Organisations

Our funding themes

Our funding enables charities and education providers to help young Londoners fulfil their potential.

Our six funding themes describe the changes we want to see. If you have an educational project that aligns with our strategy, we’d love to hear from you.

How to apply

If you think your project matches one of our funding themes listed above, take our quick eligibility quiz to see if you can apply for a Portal Trust grant. If it’s a Yes, that means we’d love you to apply.

Our application process

Once you’ve confirmed eligibility to apply, you can begin our 3 stage process. We aim to make applying as simple as possible so you don’t have to do more work than necessary.

1

Stage 1: Expression of Interest

Complete the online Expression of Interest form relating to the funding theme your project will address.

2

Stage 2: Application form

If your project is a good fit, you may be invited to submit a full application.

3

Stage 3: Decision

Applications are considered by our Grants Committee, which meets three times a year, in June, October and March.

1/3

The process can take several months, and we can’t guarantee consideration at a specific meeting. We’ll be in touch if we need clarification and, where appropriate, may arrange a conversation or visit to better understand your work.

Who is eligible

To be eligible for funding, your project must:

  • Support children or young people under 25
  • Focus on those from low-income or disadvantaged backgrounds
  • Take place within our area of benefit (inner London boroughs)
  • Align clearly with at least one of our grant-making themes


We regularly consider applications that cost between £5,000-£100,000.

We don’t normally fund general fundraising appeals, work that replaces statutory funding, retrospective costs, or capital projects where this is the sole focus. Please read our eligibility guidance carefully before applying.

Eligibility checker

Find out if your organisation is eligible to apply for funding by taking our short quiz.

Take quiz

Frequently asked questions

We want to make sure your application process is as simple as possible. If you have a question, check out our FAQs below to find the answers you need quickly, and get in touch if you still need help.