Children's grant-making charity closes

Governance | Kirsty Weakley | 18 Jun 2012

A Norfolk charity that offered grants to children who had lost one or both parents has decided to close because it could not compete with the "huge advertising budgets" of national charities.

Sheringham Children’s Trust handed out its final round of grants last week after the trustees made the decision to close.

Trustee Martin Preston said that he and the three other trustees “do this with a sense of resignation because it is increasingly difficult to compete with the national charities to raise funds”.

He also said that over the last few years it had become harder to get the money it raised to people who needed it, with the number of applications hitting an all-time low last year.

“The major disappointment has been that so few of the beneficiaries came forward to apply for grants. There seems to be a stigma attached to getting money from charities,” he said.

Preston added: “It was also difficult to identity claimants, often because of data protection issues.”

Sheringham Children’s Trust gave grants to children in the area to pay for equipment, school trips, holidays and clothing.

Since it was founded in 1994 the organisation has handed out £50,000 in grants to beneficiaries.

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