The Kristina Martin Charitable Trust

The Kristina Martin Charitable Trust is an established grant-making charity approaching its 60th anniversary. The Trust is based in Newbury, Berkshire and awards grants across the UK to small charities (i.e. those with an annual turnover of less than £1 million) whose principal objectives is to support people in the UK and overseas in the areas of:

• Care following bereavement.
• Mental health and wellbeing.
• Suicide prevention, and
• The prevention of online bullying.

For its current grants round, which has a deadline of the end of December 2024, the Trust has set as aside a budget of £60,000 (i.e. £240,000 in total) against each of the following 4 themes:

1. Breaking the link between homelessness and poor mental health – priority will be given to those applications which break this link and provide meaningful differences to those affected. They would like to invite applications from UK registered charities that provide support for housing accommodation for those that are presently homeless and ongoing support for improvement of mental health thereafter.
2. Reduction in the effects of social media on mental health – the Trust invites applications from UK registered charities which create significant pathways from online to physical community participation, for example through volunteering, peer/influencer/educator or paid work. The communities could operate in local, national or international settings The Trust is particularly interested in innovative approaches from long-established or newly formed charities where young people themselves may drive the charity.
3. Reduction of Social Isolation – applications are invited from charities that own or operate a Community Hub which is used to improve social inclusion, reduce isolation, provides support services and activities which support mental health and loneliness within their community. Priority will be given to applications which demonstrate positive change to service users, engagement of a variety of volunteers and that are driven or supported by young people.
4. Improving mental health outcomes for children and young people – the Trust would like to receive applications from UK charities with clear and demonstrable experience of improving mental health outcomes for children and young people through projects that:

• • Improve early identification of mental health concerns thereby facilitating early intervention. This could include but is not limited to innovative screening (in line with the channels the service users are comfortable using) and the provision of training and resources for teachers, parents and community support workers, and
  • Improve the provision of resources, activities and programs to support positive mental health experiences.

For all grants, the Trust is keen to see strong knowledge transfer into the whole mental health sector from the work applicants undertake, and grant applications should include how impact will be measured. Please note that the Trust has not indicated a minimum or maximum grant level. In the last two years, the vast majority of grants made were for either £9,000 or £10,000.