Deadline: 01-Sep-2024
Applications are now open for the Jean Sainsbury Animal Welfare Trust (JSAWT) Grant Programme.
The Jean Sainsbury Animal Welfare Trust (JSAWT) was set up in 1982, by philanthropist and animal lover Mrs Jean Sainsbury. Since the first small donations were made 1983, JSAWT has given over £12 million to animal welfare charities working both in the UK and abroad.
Objectives
- The objectives of JSAWT are to donate to UK registered charities whose purposes encompass one or more of the following:
- to benefit or protect animals
- to relieve animals from suffering
- to conserve wild life
- to encourage the understanding of animals
Funding Information
- The maximum pledge given in the past was £35k.
- The Jean Sainsbury Animal Welfare Trust expects all applicants with an annual income of over £5,000 to be charities and to have been registered for at least 12 months.
Eligibility Criteria
- The Trust favours applications from smaller animal welfare charities registered in the UK and working in the UK or abroad:
- Which have independently examined up to date annual accounts.
- Which demonstrate an active re-homing and rehabilitation policy for animals taken into their care.
- Involved with conservation of wildlife, when the rescue, rehabilitation and (where possible) the release of animals is their main aim. The Trust aims to support UK registered charities by making donations toward the following:
- General running costs associated with the rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing or release of domestic, wild and exotic animals.
- Feeding, capture, neutering and release of feral cats.
- Assistance with vet’s fees and neutering costs of animals owned by those on low incomes.
- Donations towards capital purchases involving land, buildings, vehicles, equipment and educational material. The Trustees may pledge funds towards large capital building projects, which will only be released when all other funding is in place and the work is ready to commence.
- Donations toward the purchase or improvement of property or fixed buildings are only considered if:
- the property is clearly in the ownership of the charity, or 2
- at least 10 years is left to run on the charity’s lease, or
- a letter from the landowner states that the charity will be reimbursed for the improvements on sale of the property or at the end of the lease. Otherwise, support for improvements can only be considered when they do not increase the saleable value of the property.
Criteria
- Criteria for considering applications from charities which import dogs or other animals from overseas
- With regard to UK charities that work with dogs or other animals overseas, they favour those which support a shelter, or otherwise provide assistance (e.g. by way of rehoming, a TNR scheme, veterinary help or education), in the animals’ country of origin.
- Those charities which also import animals from overseas into the UK must satisfy all of the following criteria in order to be able to apply for a grant:
- that they support work within the country of origin which benefits animals remaining within that country
- that, having regard to the potential health risks of importing an animal from overseas, each animal is imported legally and in accordance with current DEFRA guidelines applicable to the particular country of origin
- that each animal has been examined by a vet following its arrival in the UK
- that the charity has its own permanent premises in the UK suitable for assessing the animal
- that the charity has assessed the behaviour of the animal both in its country of origin and, for a period of at least 3 weeks, in its UK premises and found it to be suitable for its prospective adopter
- that the animal has been neutered or spayed before being rehomed (or that the charity has made arrangements to do this once it is safe to do so)
- that a face-to-face meeting is arranged between the animal and its prospective adopter in advance of the animal being rehomed; and
- that if for any reason following adoption its new owner finds the animal unsuitable, the new owner is given the option of returning the animal to the charity’s UK premises. No such animal should then be sent back to its country of origin.
Ineligible
- The Trust will not support:
- 1. Applications from individuals.
- Charities registered outside the UK.
- Charities offering sanctuary to animals, with no effort to re-home, foster or rehabilitate unless endangered species.
- Charities that do not have a realistic destruction policy for animals that cannot be given a reasonable quality of life.
- Charities with cash and/or investments valued at more than one year’s expenditure will not qualify for a donation, unless it can be demonstrated that reserves are being held specifically for a project.
- Charities that spend more than a reasonable proportion of their annual income on administration or cannot justify their costs per animal helped.
- They would not normally support an application from overseas charities for funds for capital expenditure.
- Veterinary Schools, unless the money can be seen to be directly benefiting the type of animals the Trust would want to support e.g. welfare-related or low-cost first opinion vet treatment projects. The Trust expects all applicants to be charities registered with the Charity Commission unless their annual income is under £5,000.
For more information, visit JSAWT.
