We are unable to fund the following:

• Projects or individuals based outside the United Kingdom
• Building costs or ongoing running costs
• Deficit reduction i.e. covering costs already incurred
• Teaching equipment, day-to-day consumables or resources such as textbooks
• Chaplaincy or collective worship
• Religious or non-religious proselytising, relating to a particular worldview
• External religious or community groups visiting schools to deliver single one-off lessons or events

All applicants are expected to explain how their project aligns with and contributes to the vision and mission of Culham St Gabriel’s.

Culham St Gabriel’s vision is for broad-based, critical and reflective religion and worldviews education contributing to a well-informed, respectful and open society.

Culham St Gabriel’s works towards it vision by:

• Increasing public understanding of religion and worldviews education
• Engaging with, informing and influencing decision makers
• Creating well-informed, empowered and influential educationalists
• Establishing and building strategic and collaborative partnerships and networks
• Commissioning and publishing focused and accessible research
• Championing and developing inspired and well-resourced teaching and learning.

We ask all applicants to demonstrate how their project supports and contributes to Culham St Gabriels’ Strategic Objectives.

• Promoting positive public perception and understanding of religion and worldviews education
• Influencing governments’ policies in supporting a high-quality religion and worldviews education, including the implementation of a National Plan in England
• Advocating for the importance of high-quality religion and worldviews education within the education world
• Empowering the current and next generation of religion and worldviews education teachers and leaders
• Fostering and nurturing collaborative partnerships within the religion and worldviews education community.

Each year, Culham St Gabriel’s identifies specific focus areas to guide our funding priorities. We encourage applicants to review the current focus areas before submitting a proposal.

Taking into account responses to the above points, the Trustees will then evaluate your application using the following criteria:

Relevance: Does the project have a practical or policy application to rigorous, innovative teaching, curriculum enrichment or leadership in UK schools, related to a religion and worldviews education?

Capacity: Does the applicant individual or organisation have the knowledge, expertise, commitment and judgement to deliver the project? Is the application supported by two referees not connected to the project?

Collaboration: Does the proposal include plans for active collaboration with others within and/or outside the religion and worldviews community? Are there opportunities within the proposal for strategic partnerships between organisations/individuals?

Impact: Does the proposal include plans for the project to have positive impact on learning, teaching or policy? How well is this impact defined and prepared for? Will the proposed impact further Culham St Gabriel’s mission and support its strategy objectives?

Dissemination: Does the proposal include clear plans for spreading and embedding good practice in and beyond one institution? Do the plans include a strong commitment to collaboration, partnership and dissemination of excellence?

Value for money: Ought the funding to support the proposal be coming from local or central government, or from the applicant’s faith/belief community? Is the amount requested broken down into budgeted detail? Is the amount justifiable when compared with the number of teachers and/or learners affected?

Success and sustainability: Does the project have a clear definition of success? For corporate applications, can the project continue independently after funding?

Please note that all applicants invited to submit a Stage 2 application are expected to have a recently reviewed safeguarding policy in place.

If your grant application is successful, the following conditions will apply:

• Open Access: All published outputs and research resulting from Culham St Gabriel’s funding must be made openly accessible to the public. Please refer to our Open Access Policy for further details.
• Reporting Requirements: You will be asked to provide a verbal progress update and submit a written annual report each year during the funding period.
• Additional Funding: We ask applicants to keep Culham St Gabriel’s informed of any other grant applications related to the project. If additional funding is secured from other sources, you will notify us as soon as possible, as this may require a review and potential adjustment of the grant award.
• Acknowledgement of Support: We ask that resources, publications, and reports produced as part of the project acknowledge the support of Culham St Gabriel’s.
• Project Completion: If the proposed project is not completed, any unspent portion of the grant must be returned to Culham St Gabriel’s.
• Project Non-Delivery: If the project is not undertaken at all, the full grant award must be returned.

Examples of additional conditions

Depending on the nature of your project, additional conditions may be applied to your grant award. These may include:

• Match Funding: If your proposal includes match funding, Culham St Gabriel’s offer will be conditional upon securing the full remaining amount from other sources. 
• External Evaluation: Inclusion of an independent evaluation process to assess the impact and effectiveness of the project. 
• Advisory Involvement: A Culham St Gabriel’s trustee or staff member may be invited to participate in a steering or advisory group for the project. 
• Grantee Events: Attendance at Culham St Gabriel’s grantee events may be requested to support networking, learning, and sharing of outcomes.