abrdn Financial Fairness Trust Grants – First 2023 Deadline Confirmed

abrdn Financial Fairness Trust (formerly the Standard Life Foundation), a charity based in Edinburgh and London, seeks to improve financial wellbeing in the UK through research and other activities to improve the living standards and personal finances of people on low to middle incomes.

Grants provided by the Trust fund research, campaigning and policy work focusing on income, spending and assets. There is particular interest in discovering where the gaps in knowledge are and looking at potential solutions, and in work that looks at both structural and external factors as well as an individual’s capabilities and how these different elements interact and can be addressed.

The grant programme focuses on three significant areas that influence financial wellbeing:

• Income (wages, social security, pensions and taxation).
• Spending (cost of living, consumer spending, problem gambling, borrowing and payment problems).
• Assets (general saving, retirement saving, housing and taxation).

A range of strategic work will be funded (ie work that benefits more than individuals and has the potential to benefit large numbers of people within the UK). This work must aim to create a step change in policy, practice, attitudes and/or behaviour. It includes policy work, campaigning, research, public attitudinal work, evaluations of existing initiatives, and improving practice and design.

Addressing specific inequalities, differences and vulnerabilities is central to the work the Trust funds. Priority groups include: younger people, disabled people, black and minority ethnic communities, and single parents. These groups are more likely to have low incomes and have fewer assets compared to others. The Trust believes that focusing on work that addresses the root causes, rather than supporting individual beneficiaries, is a more sustainable approach to improving financial wellbeing within society.

Application is open to universities, research bodies, registered charities, voluntary organisations, think tanks and campaign groups in the UK. (While the Trust’s remit is UK-wide and the majority of its work seeks to benefit UK residents, the Trust is keen to support work in Scotland, including UK-wide work that has a Scottish dimension to it.) The Trust does not consider more than one outline application from any single organisation at a time.

Grants of between £10,000 and £200,000 are available. Most projects attract between £50,000 and £120,000 in total. The grant amount can be spread over one, two or three years, and sometimes for shorter periods (eg six months).

The first 2023 outline application deadline has been confirmed as 4 February. The second 2023 outline application deadline is expected to be 3 June. Applications must be submitted by 13:00 on the deadline dates.