The Rank Foundation’s Board of Trustees has paused its Pebbles Grants programme. It will review this decision at the end of the current strategy period in late 2025.
Pebbles is The Rank Foundation’s small funding stream for UK registered charities and churches. The grants, of between £250 to £4,000, were spent on respite breaks, equipment, or capital costs.
David Sanderson, CEO said:
“The Rank Foundation builds long-term relationships with the organisations and individuals in its Network, investing to nurture and build on their strengths, leadership, and capacity. In line with our strategy, we wish to support the Rank Network members as they face the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and increased demand for services and for our support.”
The Rank Foundation’s Network includes around 1,500 members from charities and social enterprises across the UK. In October 2022 and January 2023, Rank surveyed the Network to understand the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on their work.
More than 360 people told us about their experience of the cost-of-living crisis, which combines increased demand for services along with significantly increased costs and a more challenging fundraising environment.
In 2023, The Rank Foundation awarded almost £1.5 million in cost-of-living grants to 130 Network Members using a mutual trust-based model of grantmaking. A further £9.5 million was awarded to 840 grantees, making a total of £11 million awarded by the end of 2023.
We continue our mission focused work and our next review of strategy will be in 2026.