Application criteria

The Foundation’s decisions are made by its Board of Trustees, who are responsible for assessing applications and deciding which charitable causes will benefit from funding. Precedence will be given to causes that are located within the geographic area of West Bromwich Building Society’s branch network.

All applications must:

• Clearly outline how the grant will support the objectives and purpose of the foundation.
• Be solely for public benefit, demonstrating the positive impact on local communities.
• Be used to fund projects/causes that are exclusively charitable.
• Provide a full cost breakdown for the proposed project, as well as specifically detailing how the grant will be utilised.
• Include Real Living Wage considerations if the grant will be used to support salaried positions.

If you’re applying for a grant that will cover a salaried position, we encourage these roles to be paid at the Real Living Wage rate as a minimum. If you can evidence this role will be paid at the Real Living Wage rate, please include this in your application, however, we understand that this may not always be possible. If you aren’t able to pay the Real Living Wage at present, this doesn’t mean we won’t fund your application. We may be able to work with you to find ways to make the grant accommodate these considerations, so please give as much detail about the salaried role in your application.

Typically, the Foundation is unable to support applications that meet any of the following criteria, however, final discretion sits with the Trustees:

• Applications from organisations who are primarily funded by a public body, including central or local government (for example, schools, NHS etc).
• Requests for funding towards general running costs (for example, utilities, room hire etc).
• Applications where the recipient is located outside of our region.
• Direct relief of financial hardship through payments to individuals.
• Personal applications for an individual as opposed to a charity or community cause.