Open Grants Fund

Stages and deadlines

Two stages of your application

1. Stage 1: Eligibility Quiz and Tell Us About You form

An 'eligibility quiz' with Yes/No answers to check your organisation is eligible to apply for a grant. 

If your organisation is eligible, there is an on-line form asking for basic contact details, four or five questions about your organisation and a request to upload documents to help us understand your finance and governance. These include your Safeguarding Policy and an internal Finance Report to your latest Year End that sets out actual income and expenditure compared with budget. We expect you to have these documents already and ask you to create new documents. We also leave room for you to add anything else you want to tell us. 

We don't ask you to request a size of grant.

We will share our updated form when the fund opens on 24 July 2025

2. Stage 2 Application Form and Visit

Our Board and Director review the Stage 1Tell Us About You forms and then ask a smaller number of applicants (around ten to fourteen applicants) to fill in an on-line Stage 2 application form and we arrange a time to visit.  We expect to grant around seven grants after Stage 2.

The Stage 2 form will have two or three more questions.

A Board member and our Director visit after we've received your Stage 2 form to meet you, understand your organisation and work, discuss how a partnership might work and answer your questions. Information on the Board and Director are here.

We will share our updated form when the fund opens on 24 July 2025

If there's anything you don't understand, please email us any questions

Extra information

  • How long does it take to find out  if I have a grant?   We tell you at the end of Nov 2025 if you've been invited to Stage 2 or been unsuccessful (2 months after application deadline).  We tell you at the end of Feb 2026 (3 months later) if you've been awarded a grant. Schedule in the box below.
  • What chance do I have? In 2022, 39% of eligible applicants were awarded a grant. In 2022, 44% of eligible applicants were awarded a grant. In 2025 we are including applications from CICs Limited by Guarantee for the first time, so it is harder to predict but will share learning as we go along. For more information, go to our FAQ.
  • Video or Audio applications? We don't offer video or audio applications, but you're welcome to share links to existing videos when you apply. If you find our online form is not accessible, please email us your questions.
  • English not your first language or you find writing challenging? Don't worry - we want to hear from you. Please fill in the form in a way you're comfortable with and email us any questions .
  • What happens after I apply? We let you know we’ve received your application and when decisions are made.  We give you feedback if we don’t award a grant.

Deadlines and schedule

24 July 2025: applications openOur application round opens with a link to our Stage 1 Tell Us About You online application form. We will share our up-dated form on 24 July 2025.
August and September 2025Any questions? We can speak on the phone to answer questions once  you've read our guidance - please email info@peterminet.org.uk to set a time. 
25 September 2025 5pm: Stage 1 deadlineDeadline for submitting the Stage 1 Tell Us About You application forms
end-November 2025: invitation to Stage 2We'll let you know if we're inviting your organisation to submit a Stage 2 online application form or not or if you've been unsuccessful, giving feedback.
18 December 2025 5pm: Stage 2 deadlineDeadline for submitting Stage 2 form ahead of a visit Deadline for submitting the Stage 1 Tell Us About You application forms 
Mid-late January 2026Visit by Board member and Director
End-February 2026Decisions on grants awarded and feedback
2026-20293 year funding delivered
March 2026Deadlines of the next funding round published

Relationship with organisations we fund

  • We make it clear why we have awarded your organisation a grant.
  • We agree with you how to communicate and this may include visits, phone calls and sharing reports you have already.
  • We find out about what you're doing already to show the difference your organisation is making.
  • We do not ask you to write monitoring reports – we write notes of visits and share for you  to change anything we have got wrong. We tell you what we do with this information.
  • We encourage you to share challenges your organisation is going through and ask for feedback on us as a funder - we want to understand your organisation and learn more about ourselves.