The Clare Hammacott grant

At Badger Trust, we award grants to local groups and charities that work to protect badgers through a variety of means, including education and community outreach. Please check you are eligible for a grant and that you fulfil the criteria before applying. Detailed information is listed below; please get in touch at [email protected] if you have any questions.
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Our priorities for funding

Badger Trust is a registered charity that promotes the conservation, welfare and protection of badgers, their setts and their habitats. It represents and supports local voluntary badger groups throughout Britain, provides expert advice on all badger issues and works closely with the RSPCA, the police and others to advance the protection of badgers.
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Badger Trust awards grants to locally based, not-for-profit, voluntary and charitable groups and organisations affiliated with Badger Trust, working for the protection of badgers through practical work and education. 
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The decision on whether or not to award a grant is made by the Board of Badger Trust.  All applications are subject to an initial review by the staff team to ensure the criteria are met, and that all supporting documentation or information has been received in order to adequately consider the request for funds.

 

Grant Aims

Funding will be considered for projects that meet one or more of the following aims:

• Involving the local community in conservation (with relation to badgers), in particular, those that focus on harder-to-reach communities 

• Promoting science and education (with relation to badgers)

• Proposing a new or innovative idea to protect badgers or their environment

• Outreach projects in the local community (e.g. educational visits, talks and events) that encourage people to take an interest in badgers in a new way

• Improving or enhancing an existing service, or improving the sustainability of the group, thereby increasing overall future impact for badgers

• Projects that benefit badgers, but cannot be carried out without grant funding

• Projects that will be carried out in areas where there is no badger group at present or where there is little current resource.

 

​Your application - our Terms and Conditions

1. You must be an affiliated local badger group to Badger Trust (associate or full).

2. Your annual membership payment and paperwork must be up to date.

3. Your application must primarily benefit badgers.

4. You may apply for any amount up to £1,500.

5. You will need a bank or building society account with at least two unrelated people authorised to sign cheques or make withdrawals. This should be your usual group bank account, and the monies will only be transferred/cheque sent to that account. Monies will never be transferred or sent to a personal bank account.

6. You will need a set of rules or a constitution, and Badger Trust must have sight of this. 

7. Your application is more likely to be successful if you can show evidence of “matched funding” for at least 50% of the amount you request. This can be from other funding sources or can be calculated using the rate of £10 per hour for the hours worked by your volunteers.

8. We are less likely to fund existing organisations that have reserves or realisable assets valued at more than twelve months of their operating costs.

9. The project/organisation’s annual income must be less than £15,000.  This is inclusive of both restricted and unrestricted funds.

10. You must claim the grant money within the calendar year in which the funds are awarded. Funds will not be rolled over into a subsequent year.

11. We will not fund salaries, building maintenance or the general upkeep of property and its environs.

12. Badger Trust does not fund professional fees, for example, accountancy, auditing, legal etc.  Applications that include other charges will be considered on their own individual merits but are unlikely to receive funding unless they can be shown to be essential.

13. We are less likely to award funding to applications for rental, insurance or office expenditure but these will be considered on an individual basis.

14. Successful applicants must wait until the following year’s grant applications open before applying for a subsequent grant unless they can show that they could not have reasonably predicted the need for the additional application. Where demand on the fund is significant, the Board may decide to apply a ‘one year on, one year off’ approach to grant applications from the same group. Each application will be reviewed on merit, wider demand, and Badger Trust’s ability to allocate funds at that time.

15. Applicants must not be in receipt of direct funding from statutory authorities for the same project.

16. Applicants must not fundraise for the same funds via other means, eg via crowdfunding. This can only be done where the funds from Badger Trust form part of the overall funds, eg £1,500 from the fund as part of £5,000 overall. Where this is the case this must be clearly stated in the fundraising, and Badger Trust named as provided funds from the Clare Hammacott Grant Fund.

17. Applications will not be accepted for activities deemed to be primarily political in nature.

18. Retrospective application i.e. for expenditure already incurred, will not be considered.

 

Please note: It may not always be possible to fund all projects that meet these criteria. If the sum of money requested in any one round of applications, or over the course of the year, exceeds the funds available, then the Board may award grants only to those projects it regards as best meeting or exceeding the aims listed above.   

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Evaluation of the use of funds and proof of spend

Where a grant is awarded the spend must be demonstrated and confirmed. You must evidence the spend with receipts/invoices, and include this when you complete and return the Grant Monitoring Form. This must be received within twelve months after being awarded funds. No further applications will be accepted (from this fund or any other eligible fund for which your group qualifies) if the required reporting on spend is not received within the timeframe expected.

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Grant recipients must acknowledge the receipt of funds from the Clare Hammacott Grant Fund when reporting to their supporters, in any annual report, and when talking generally about the work involved. In particular a ‘thank you’ to the fund, and acknowledgement to Badger Trust should be made on social media, and ideally a blog piece written and submitted. This helps showcase the Grant Fund so that other groups may be inspired to apply, and continues to show Clare’s dedication to badger protection. 

 

Timing of your application

The approval process is spread over the year and is scheduled to tie into meetings of the Finance Sub Committee, and then the Badger Trust Board. Please ensure you meet the deadline and have provided all the information required (including having submitted any due report for past awards).

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Only fully completed applications with checklist enclosures and a detailed list of costs will be considered, any incomplete applications will be returned and may miss the deadline if you need to revisit and resubmit. Take this into account when you send in your application, ideally aiming to submit your forms for the meeting before when you think you will need the grant. 
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Closing dates for applications in 2025*

Fourth round: Monday, 30th December 2024

First round: Monday, 31st March 2025
Second round: Monday, 23rd June 2025
Third round: Monday, 15th September 2025 
Fourth round: Monday, 22nd December 2025

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*Please note that as applications need to be reviewed by the staff team prior to passing to the Finance Sub-Committee for review and recommendation, prior to a final decision by the Board, there will be a delay of around 3 weeks from deadline to response on a decision. ​

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Grant Decision

This decision may be:

• An approval for funding, in full or partial

• A conditional approval based on a request for further information

• A request for further information

• A request for a meeting, to discuss the application

• A request for more time to consider your application

• A decline, with an explanation why the application was not approved. This decision will be final. Substantially revised applications may be accepted, but must be submitted in the normal way. 

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Equal opportunities

Badger Trust aims to ensure that all applicants will be given equal consideration regardless of gender, race, colour, ethnic or national origin or level of ability, provided that the application meets our criteria and priorities. Organisations and projects that do not work toward these same equal opportunity aims will not be funded.