Eligibility Checklist

The Pixel Fund continues to be oversubscribed with enquiries for grant. Many of these enquiries are from charities who are ineligible to apply to us. Putting time and effort into an ineligible application is something the the Pixel Fund tries at every step to avoid. In a perfect world The Pixel Fund wants all charities that apply to it to be successful.

Before contacting us please familiarise yourself with the information on the website to be sure that you are eligible to apply to the Pixel Fund. However, to make it easier, we’ve put together the following checklist, with a short explanation of each question.

To apply to the Pixel Fund we expect an applicant to meet the following conditions, if you do not meet the following conditions do not contact us about an application. The list may seem onerous - if so, do not contact us about an application, we are heavily oversubscribed.

As noted on the homepage, subject to approval by the Trustees, we generally offer first grants of between £2,500 and £5,000. However, no single grant is ever more than 5% of annual income. The combination of our typical grant size and limit on the grant in terms of percentage of annual income means that we are very unlikely to grant to any organisation with an income of less than £20,000 per year.

You are applying as a registered charity, not as an individual.
We cannot grant to individuals.
The charity is registered in England & Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
We only grant to charities registered on the charity registers of England and Wales, or Scotland, or Northern Ireland. If a charity is not on the relevant charity register, the Pixel Fund cannot grant to it. We cannot grant to exempt charities, as they are not on the charity register.
The charity does NOT fall into one of these categories:
- Charities where the project / service is delivered overseas
- Independent schools (other than those supporting children with special educational needs)
- Religious organisations
- Exempt charities
The charity’s focus is well-being and mental health.
We do not grant to organisations whose primary focus is other than well-being and mental health.
The charity’s client group or one of the main client groups is children and young people under 26 years old.
We will not grant to organisations which do not include this group.
The charity has an annual income of less than £2m.
At The Pixel Fund, we only grant to charities below this threshold.
If the charity has an annual income of more than £1m, the charity has fixed term limits for trustees.
Most organisations have trustees that can be re-elected annually or every three years, but is there a limit after which they have to stand down (often six or nine years)? At the Pixel Fund, we have a sliding scale approach to this. In our view, as a charity approaches an annual income of £0.5m it needs to be actively considering fixed term limits, if it hasn’t already. Between £0.5 and £1.0m it needs to be actively implementing term limits. Beyond £1m we would expect fixed term limits and will not grant to an organisation that does not have these.
NB. A fixed-term limit is not one in which trustees can be re-elected every three years (for example) indefinitely. A fixed-term limit is one in which, after an agreed number of terms, the trustee must stand down and step away from their trustee duties to the charity. If a charity allows trustees with expired limits to stand down and then come back after a year, we do not consider this to be a fixed-term limit.
The charity’s trustees are not conflicted.
It is our view that trustees need to be independent of the organisation and independent of each other in order to maximise their benefit to the organisation. With that in mind we will not invite applications from or grant to organisations which have trustees which are related to each other or related to a member of the charity executive team (this includes by marriage). We consider it a conflict if a trustee or a firm connected to a trustee supplies services to the charity they have a role at (for example accounting services). If a trustee works with an organisation that benefits from the work of the charity they are a trustee at, that is a clear conflict. We will not grant in these situations. This latter point is related to professional relationships and conflicts.
We do understand, and can be accepting of, situations in which family members of children benefiting from a charity become trustees of that charity.
It's not uncommon for a charity to have been set up by the parents of a child, in that case we will accept both parents as trustees if the charity is less than ten years old and that there is a clear and realistic timetable for one of them to step away from the charity.
Do contact us for clarification if you need to.
The charity has a considered approach to organisational risk.
In other words, you have, and will share, a risk map, risk register or equivalent, that is considered regularly by management and trustees.
The charity can explain how it monitors its own business and project activities and outcomes.
How does the charity monitor itself? The charity will be asked to share how it monitors its own projects and outcomes.
The charity can supply us with recent accounts and up-to-date financial information.
We need to understand your current financial situation in order to make a decision on whether to invite the charity to apply for grant. We require a copy of the most recent published accounts and up-to-date financial information from the date of the last published accounts to within the last three months. And to include a balance sheet at the closing date.
The charity can supply a financial commentary (no more than half a page) on the most recent financial statements (the annual statements that the charity is required to file) explaining any inconsistencies.
The charity can supply a budget for the current financial year.
As a charity you are required to keep up-to-date financial records, so this shouldn't be difficult to share. We understand that recent financial information might not be audited. If you are unable to supply this information, you are not eligible to apply to the Pixel Fund.
New Charities: Charities will need to have submitted at least a first full set of accounts on the Charity Commission website before we will consider granting to an organisation.
The charity can explain its pension scheme arrangements.
We are understandably wary of charities that still have Defined Benefit schemes and/or pension deficits.
The charity has an online presence.
In order to be able to make a considered decision as to whether to grant to a charity, we need to get a feel for the charity and the kind of work it does. We’ve found that an effective way to do this is through a website or social media page.
If a charity receives Gift Aid eligible donations of more than £100,000 annually (generating at least £25,000 in Gift Aid) it must be registered for Gift Aid.
If you receive more than £100,000 of donations annually that are eligible for Gift Aid, you MUST be registered for Gift Aid. We understand that Gift Aid is tough to apply for, at least initially, but if you are not, and have significant eligible donations, then the Pixel Fund will not grant to the charity.

NB. Some of the above criteria go beyond the Charity Commission’s suggestions for good practise. If the charity you represent is ineligible to apply to us based on the above criteria this is in no way a comment on how the charity you represent is run or organised, it is simply The Pixel Fund’s agreed view on governance and a strong attempt to make sure that the charities that are invited to make an application for grant have the best chance of success. We reserve the right to amend and change the above without notice.

LAST UPDATED 2024.03.12