For current funding opportunities, please see here.
Please note there is an upper annual income limit of £1.5m for this programme.
From 2026, the main programme will support civil society organisations (CSOs) to use legal action to tackle corporate harm in the UK. That will include, for example, to:
- understand when, how and where the law or human rights based approaches can be effective tools to hold corporations to account for creating, perpetuating or exacerbating disadvantage;
- build sustainable partnerships between legal and non-legal CSOs;
- develop additional capacity to use the law and human rights based approaches within movements for social change; and
- translate frontline activity into effective advocacy and policy change.
The programme will continue to fund legally expert ‘hub’ organisations that work collaboratively with other civil society organisations, campaigners and communities to deliver change.
The first grants under this theme will be made in the second half of 2026.
You can keep in touch with the programme and find out about funding opportunities here on our website, or in the Strengthening Civil Society edition of our e-newsletter.
Other areas of grant-making
Over the next five years, we will spend £1.5 million to support legal action to address racial injustice in the criminal legal system. This is part of a stronger focus on racial justice across the Foundation’s grant-making and follows a previous commitment of £2 million for this purpose in 2021.
The programme also makes occasional grants to support the use of the law to help local communities have a say in planning decisions, and to projects that involve the defence and promotion of human rights frameworks. Grants in these areas are made by invitation only.
Past grant-making
Between 2015 and 2026, the Strengthening Civil Society programme gave over £14.6 million through 225 grants to organisations that have used legal action strategically to improve the lives of individuals and communities across a wide range of concerns – from having no recourse to public funds and modern slavery to domestic violence, rights in childbirth and housing.
You can explore some of these grants in more detail in our case studies and our database of grants.
You can read an evaluation of the second phase of this work (2020-2025) here and an evaluation of the first phase (2015-2020) here.
You can keep in touch with the Programme and find out about funding opportunities here on our website, on twitter and in the special Strengthening Civil Society edition of our e-newsletter.
