Deadline: 18-Aug-20
The Baring Foundation has launched the first funding round to support arts and mental health organisations.
With this funding, the Foundation is offering modest, unrestricted grants to established organisations in the UK that focus solely on offering creative opportunities to people of any age living with mental health problems using the skills of professionally trained artists.
This is the first funding call in what will be a long-term commitment to funding arts and mental health. They will expand beyond this starting place as they know that a great deal of valuable work is being done by other organisations which this first round of funding will not be able to support.
Funding Information
You do not need to apply for a specific amount. They have £900,000 available for this work in 2020 and they know there are a lot of organisations out there. They envisage making grants of £12,000 – £15,000 each. The final grant awarded will depend on the level of demand.
Eligibility Criteria
Importantly, organisations which only concern themselves with work relating to creativity with people, including children and young people, with mental health problems are eligible for this funding round. Grants are not available in this call for organisations which undertake this work as one part of a broader offer.
The Foundation have given careful consideration to the criteria they expect applications to fulfil in order for them to judge whether they are able to award a grant. They are unable to fund applications that fail to fully meet all four of the criteria set out below.
- Established organisations operating in the UK – your organisation will need to have been operating for at least two years and have audited accounts for at least the last year. Eligible organisations include registered charities and CICs.
- Sole focus – you need to be able to evidence that your organisation only concerns itself with work relating to creativity with people, including children and young people, with mental health problems.
- Creative opportunities using the skills of professionally trained artists. They define creativity broadly – as the use of all art forms. This includes, for example, specialist mental health museums that employ creative practices. The Foundation will retain for this funding call the long-standing approach of funding participatory arts, in which a trained artist (in any art form) facilitates the creativity of people without that form of training. You need to demonstrate that your work uses this approach. They will not fund art therapy.
- Mental health problems – they are aware that the language around mental health problems and the ideas behind these are a contentious area. They wish to use language that is respectful and accessible. They are using the phrase ‘mental health problems’ to cover psychoses, Common Mental Health Disorders and addictions. There is more on this in the report Creatively Minded. This includes self-diagnosis as well as someone in contact with mental health services. It does not include learning disabilities or neurological issues such as Autistic Spectrum Disorder in themselves, though they recognise that people with these conditions can also have mental health problems. They need you to be able to demonstrate that you work solely with people experiencing mental health problems.
For more information, visit https://baringfoundation.org.uk/news-story/baring-foundation-launches-first-funding-round-to-support-arts-and-mental-health-organisations/