Application FAQs

Yes, you can, but please use it thoughtfully.

While we understand that you may want to use AI to help write your application, it's often clear when an application relies too heavily on it. In many cases, this makes the application feel generic and prevents the applicant’s unique voice and distinctiveness from coming through. As a result, applicants who over-rely on AI often do not give themselves the best chance of success. Here are some key things to keep in mind if you choose to use AI:

Avoid Generic Responses

Applications that rely heavily on AI often lose their individuality and originality, making it harder for us to understand you and your charity. If you use AI to draft or check grammar, make sure you tailor your response to reflect your own voice, experiences and ideas.

Look Out for Inaccuracies

AI-generated content may contain inaccuracies, which can weaken your application. When using data to show the need for your work, we encourage you to rely on trusted research rather than AI-generated information. Drawing on your own knowledge and expertise helps you give more authentic, relevant and accurate answers that better showcase your work.

Protect Your Data

Many free AI tools retain the data they receive. While these tools can be useful, it’s important not to share confidential or sensitive information with them. If you use a paid AI tool, check its data protection and retention policies to make sure your information stays secure.

The Environmental Impact

The environmental cost of AI is significant due to its high energy and water requirements. We encourage you to be mindful of the environmental impact when using AI.

There’s no fixed minimum or maximum amount. Sometimes the Trust will fund an entire project; sometimes it will fund only a proportion of the costs, requiring match funding. On each of the theme pages, you can see the average grant level. We recommend that you ask for the level of funding needed to make your project a success.

Unfortunately, we’re unable to give feedback on unsuccessful applications due to the high number of applications we receive. We try to make our guidelines and website as clear as possible to help you determine whether you're eligible and to include all the information we need to make an informed decision.

Typical reasons for applications being declined include:

• Applying for work which similar organisations are delivering in the same area as you
• Applications that don't include vital information we'd need to make an informed decision about your work and its impact
• Unclear applications that don't explain what you do, why it's needed and what difference you're making
• Financial constraints, including our budget limitations or the costs of the project
• Your application relied heavily on AI and we noticed a significant differences between what you wrote in your application and what your website says

We’ve put together a short list of common issues applicants encounter when using our application portal, along with suggested solutions. Read our application portal troubleshooting document.

We hope this helps you quickly resolve any difficulties and continue your application or reporting process smoothly.

If not, please email the grants team at hello@portaltrust.org

The assessment process can take eight months or more. For example, if you are aiming for the June meeting, we recommend applying in November.

Depending on timing, number of applications and the grants budget available. The Grants Committee meets three times per year — in March, June and October, but there’s no guarantee an application will be reviewed at a specific meeting.

We recommend that you take this into consideration when setting your project start date.

Success rates vary year to year based on demand and available funds. Each application is assessed on merit and alignment with themes.

Yes, but unsuccessful organisations must wait a minimum of 12 months from the date of rejection before reapplying. Additional applications in those 12 months are not considered.

Please see our grant holders page.

Unfortunately, EOI’s can’t be edited once they’ve been submitted. If you need to withdraw an application, please contact us to discuss next steps.

We prefer that you don’t provide additional documentation after you have submitted the application. However, if you wish to update us on a change to your project start date or have received additional funding, please let your grants officer know.

If we invite you to the second phase of the application process, you will have an opportunity to provide additional information and updates.

Yes. If you’d like to talk through your idea before applying, you can contact us at hello@portaltrust.org or call us 0207 4805884. We’re happy to answer questions or talk through your fit with the fund. Please note that we can’t read draft applications or offer detailed feedback or written answers.

If you have a live application in our pipeline, please don't invite us, as it’s not fair to accept hospitality during the assessment phase of our application process.

If you have not applied, a team member may be able to attend, depending on availability.

Yes, your budget should be submitted using the budget template available here. We do not need a breakdown for every possible expense, but headline figures are needed; we can get more details from you at stage two if necessary.

There are some budget lines that we expect to see:

• Regarding Monitoring and Evaluation costs, we understand they can be expensive, but this indicates you wish to know your project's outcomes.
• Salary Costs: If you are requesting multi-year funding, we anticipate an inflationary increase each year of the grant.
• Overheads: You can include reasonable and applicable overheads.
• In-Kind Costs: If your project budget includes this element, please explain it clearly in the budget

We need to know that you have a financial plan for the project, even if you don't yet know where the remaining funding will come from.