A single grant of £5 million is available to support a ‘dream’ project in one or more areas in England, Scotland and Wales.
Applications must be from two to four organisations working in partnership to develop innovative solutions to society’s most challenging problems. While the lead partner must be a registered charity, partners can be universities, companies, local authorities, research institutes and other charities and not-for- profit organisations. The lead partner must have an annual income that is at least £5 million. It is not possible to combine the incomes of the partners to reach the income threshold.
Applications that score highly in their originality, ambition and collaborative nature stand the highest chances of being successful. Applicants are encouraged to be ambitious and creative in developing their project ideas. Please contact the Dream Fund team to discuss your project ideas and receive feedback.
Projects can span from 1 to 5 years in length.
Applicants can apply more than once, either as a lead or a partner organisation, up to a maximum of twice.
All applications must reserve at least 5% of the budget for comms and PR activity to maximize promotion of the project.
Applications must be innovative, creative and original, and present projects that are a genuine ‘dream’.
The Dream Fund is looking for large, innovative, systems changing, transformational projects – you can find some examples of previously funded projects on their website.
They welcome projects focused on the funding themes of the nine UK focused Postcode Trusts. These can include
- health
- wellbeing
- families
- children
- environmental conservation
- biodiversity
- wildlife and animals
- culture and heritage
- and others.
What is critical is that the project ideas can deliver exceptionally strong impact and are pushing boundaries in terms of their innovation, rather than rigidly matching a pre-existing theme.
All great project ideas begin with understanding a clear problem and then using the skills, experience and resources of the project partners to craft a unique solution.
The deadline for Stage 1 applications (an Expression of Interest) is Friday 31 July 2026 with the successful applicant expected to be notified in September 2026.