One of the ways that groups can support people affected by MS is by offering grants to people in financial need. Our grants make a difference to the lives of people with MS by helping to pay for things that maintain or improve their health and wellbeing. They also recognise the valuable role played by family and friends who are carers.
We have a grants working group made up of ten volunteers from groups across all four nations. This working group meets regularly to review our grants rules and processes, taking feedback from other groups into account.
This page has links to our grant making guidance for groups, and up to date copies of all application forms. We’ll share any updates and changes here, and include these in our volunteer newsletter.
Cost of Living Grants rollout
We’re rolling out a new Cost of Living Grants scheme to all groups that would like to offer them. Find out more about the grants and how to get started here.
Grants training eLearning
We’re launching new Grants eLearning in July 2024. This is for any volunteer directly involved in grants, whether that's as a Support Volunteer who may be helping people apply for a grant, or volunteers in other roles who will be making decisions about applications.
You can work through the module as an introduction to grants if your group is considering setting up a grants service. Or you can use it as a refresher and resource to dip in to for specific information, if your group already offers grants.
Find out more about the eLearning here.
Grants guidance documents
- Download the grant giving process overview for a summary of the key stages in the grant giving process
- Download the grant giving - good practice guide for groups 2023 for a more detailed overview of awarding Health & Wellbeing Grants and Carers Grants
- Download a quick reference list of grant categories and maximum grant amounts
- Download the group grants record template for a simple form to track your group’s grant decisions and budget
- Download the grants - financial assessment tool to help you prioritise applicants in most financial need
- Download the grants - impact assessment tool to help you prioritise applications that will have the most impact
- Download the 'Funds from other charities' guidance document for information about signposting applicants to other grant-giving charities.
Health & Wellbeing Grants
- Download a Health and Wellbeing Grant application form
- Download the Health & Wellbeing application form guidance notes
- Download the additional funding information form to help you gather information from a grant applicant to try to find other sources of funding (if your group offers this support)
Health & Wellbeing Grants support people with MS. They can help pay for mobility aids and home adaptations (where statutory funding is unavailable), equipment, respite and other things an applicant feels will make a positive and lasting impact on their life.
Carers Grant Fund
Groups can also choose to award grants to carers under the separate Carers grants.
Our Carers Grant Fund considers applications from carers of all ages for a broad range of items and activities. This fund values the important role played by families and carers in the lives of people with MS.
Support for groups assessing grant applications
In the past, groups that needed help to assess applications could send them to the national Grants Team to consider. Sadly, we no longer have a central Grants Team, and we don’t have the capacity for staff to consider applications on behalf of groups.
We’ll be working with groups to explore possible solutions to the challenges created by this situation. In the meantime, we’d like to suggest that some of our groups might want to explore working together on grant giving. So, if you have the funds to offer a grant, but can’t assess an application, you could ask another local group that's experienced in considering grants whether they could assess the application for you.
The Volunteer Support Team can give you details of groups that are local to you, so that you can get in touch to find out if they're able to help. At the moment, we can’t tell you which groups will be in a position to help, but we’ll be building up this information so that we can help link groups up going forwards.
If you’re a group with experience of considering grants, and feel you can offer this support to other groups, please let the Volunteer Support Team know, so that we can start building this information.
Contact the Volunteer Support Team:
[email protected] or call 0300 500 8084 - option #3. Working hours: 9-5 Monday to Friday (closed on bank holidays and over the festive period).