The Finnis Scott Foundation provides small grants (nominally up to £10,000, but in practice much smaller) to UK registered charities working in the areas of horticulture and plant sciences as well as art history and fine art. Preference is given to smaller charities where the Foundation's grant is likely to have a significant impact. The Foundation has slowly been increasing its total level of grant-making in recent years, together with its average grant award.
Applicants applying for gardens or hospices are likely to be looked at more favourably. Please note that the Foundation is unlikely to fund recently formed organisations that do not have an established track record of project/service delivery, or have yet to produce a set of annual accounts.
The Foundation’s funding priorities are:
- The training of gardeners (the Foundation is keen to support horticultural training through bursaries and apprenticeships).
- The restoration of gardens.
- Scientific plant projects.
- Permanent art projects, including the conservation and framing of pictures and assisting galleries in the purchase of works of art and the development of galleries.
- The production of exhibition catalogues, and
- The support of the disadvantaged within horticulture.
Capital and revenue grants of up to £10,000 are available, together with the occasional higher award over £10,000. In practice, the vast majority of awards are for under £5,000. There is no matched funding requirement.
The Foundation has previously stated that, of the applications declined, the most common reason was that the proposed project was not sufficiently aligned with the Foundation's priorities, or too large a grant was requested.
The Charity's website now contains an updated application form for grants, and this makes clear the parameters within which the Trustees would like to offer support, as well as making it clear that grants should not be for the payment of salaries (except time-limited apprenticeships or traineeships), and will usually be within the range of £500 to £10,000, although larger grants will be considered in exceptional circumstances.
Further information, guidance and an application form is available on the Foundation’s website.
Please note that they only make grants to UK charities registered with the Charity Commission, which includes CIOs, but currently excludes CICs, and includes PTAs of Special Schools, and excludes any other type of school, whether it is a registered charity or not. Grant-making is completely at the discretion of the trustees.
The Foundation meets every three months, in January, April, July and October, to review applications.
The next application deadline is 4pm on Thursday 11 December 2025 for the trustee’s meeting in January 2026.