If you work with children and young people in north-west London, John Lyon's Charity is one of the most important funders to know. It has been giving grants for decades, and it spends all of that money in one place: nine London boroughs it calls its Beneficial Area.
Those boroughs are Barnet, Brent, Camden, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Harrow, Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster and the City of London. If your work doesn't reach young people in at least one of them, none of the funds below will be open to you. If it does, the Charity is unusually generous: it pays for core costs and salaries, it funds schools as well as charities, and its larger grants can run for up to five years.
The Charity supports children and young people up to the age of 25, or up to 30 for young people with special educational needs or disabilities. Its stated aim is to improve their life chances through education, which it reads broadly: youth clubs, arts, counselling, sport, parenting support and help for young people to stay in school all count.
When we wrote this, we were tracking around a dozen of its funds as open. They split into three groups: the main grants for charities, the funds for schools, and smaller top-up funds for organisations the Charity already supports.
The main grants for charities
Open Programme: £10,000 to £20,000 a year to start, no upper limit later
This is the Charity's principal fund, and it is the one most organisations should look at first. You can ask for core costs, salary costs or project costs, and the project doesn't have to be new.
How much you're likely to get depends on your history with the Charity. If you've never had a multi-year grant from it, expect between £10,000 and £20,000 a year for up to three years. If you have, grants are typically above £30,000 a year, there's no maximum, and terms of up to five years are considered with your grants manager.
Be realistic about time. It is a two-stage process. You send a proposal, and the Charity aims to reply within six weeks. If you're invited to the second stage, decisions are currently taking around ten months, with the Grants Committee and the Trustee meeting twice a year, in June and November. The Charity says plainly that proposals are oversubscribed well in advance. If you need money by a fixed date, start now, and have another funder in mind in case it doesn't arrive in time.
Every proposal needs a fully costed budget, the total cost of the work, how much you're asking for, how long it will run, and evidence of how it improves young people's life chances. The Charity also runs an eligibility quiz on its website, and it's worth doing before you write anything.
Cultural Capital Fund for Arts Organisations: £10,000 to £30,000 a year
This fund pays arts charities to deliver high-quality arts in schools that don't usually prioritise them. Grants run for up to two years and can cover permanent staff salaries, sessional artists, and a share of management costs.
The conditions are specific. You must be a registered charity whose core purpose is the arts, you must work in at least two schools in the Beneficial Area, and the work must be face to face with large groups: a whole class, a whole year or a whole school. Projects aimed at a small, pre-selected group of young people belong in the Open Programme instead. Music projects must link to the local Music Hub, and whole-class music tuition isn't funded. Grants aren't released until the schools have confirmed and sent letters of support.
For the autumn 2026 round, the Charity's priorities are projects in Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Harrow and Barnet, work with secondary pupils or under-fives, and art forms it funds less often: music other than classical, circus, creative writing and poetry, and digital arts. Applications outside those priorities are still considered if money allows. Our record of the fund shows this round closing on 1 November 2026. Check the date on the Charity's page before you plan around it, and if you miss it, the Charity invites an expression of interest instead.
Funds for schools
Schools in Partnership Fund: up to £60,000
This is for groups of two or more state schools working together on their most challenged pupils. Single-school applications aren't accepted. One school leads, usually employing a key worker who manages the project and reports to the Charity. Themes are school access and progression, emotional wellbeing, arts and culture, and enrichment for pupils with special educational needs (special schools only). Funding can run for up to five years, and the process mirrors the Open Programme: two stages, and a long wait.
Cultural Capital Fund for Schools: up to £5,000
The schools' version of the arts fund. State primary, secondary and special schools, and state nurseries, in the Beneficial Area can apply to pay for theatre trips, gallery and museum visits, or workshops from established London arts organisations, including coach costs. It doesn't pay school staff, private nurseries can't apply, and arts therapy doesn't count. Priority goes to schools that have had few or no grants from this fund before. It's a single-stage, rolling application, and you should apply at least ten weeks before the activity.
School Holiday Activity Fund: up to £5,000
The School Holiday Activity Fund pays for fun, low-cost activities during half-terms, Christmas, Easter and the summer: drop-in sessions, arts, sport, family activities and trips out of London. It covers sessional staff, transport, venue hire and other direct costs, but not permanent salaries, large equipment, trips abroad or tuition catch-up.
Registered charities, special schools and alternative provision settings in the Beneficial Area can apply. Mainstream schools and their PTAs can't, although a charity can run activities at a mainstream school. When demand is high, priority goes to organisations with an income under £1 million, programmes that run over several days, and groups that haven't had this grant three years running.
It's considered three times a year, and you apply by the deadline for the first holiday you want to cover. The pattern has been 1 October for Christmas and February half-term, 1 February for Easter and May half-term, and 1 May for the summer and October half-term. The Charity notes it has recently updated these dates, so confirm them on its page before you plan.
Extra help for organisations already funded
Three smaller funds are open only to current grantees, or to organisations funded in the last three years.
- Refurbishment Fund. Small grants up to £10,000 and main grants up to £30,000, averaging around £15,000, to repair or improve the rooms where you work with young people: wiring, roofs, toilets, kitchens, accessibility. You need a lease of at least two years for a small grant and five for a main one, three quotes, and 5% of the grant set aside as contingency. Small grants are decided six times a year; main grants go to the June and November meetings. Priority goes to organisations with a turnover under £500,000.
- Learning and Development Fund. Up to £500 once a year for a staff member or trustee to attend non-statutory training, such as a conference, coaching or Youth Mental Health First Aid. Only organisations with an income under £1 million.
- Media Support. Free sessions with a communications agency on telling your story, press releases, media interviews and crisis communications, for organisations with an income under £1 million.
Schools can't apply to any of these three.
What John Lyon's Charity won't fund
The list of exclusions is long, and it catches people out. For charities, the Charity won't fund:
- Organisations that aren't registered charities, including community interest companies and unregistered not-for-profit groups.
- PTAs, grant-makers, hospitals, hospices or housing associations.
- Work done only online, or delivered in hospitals or prisons.
- Food bank running costs, telephone helplines, trips abroad or medical care.
- Feasibility studies, research it didn't commission, lobbying or general appeals.
- National charities with no record of work in the nine boroughs.
Schools face a separate list: no independent schools, no schools not yet inspected by Ofsted, no staff salaries and no capital costs.
Is it worth applying?
If you work with young people in these boroughs, almost certainly. Few funders will pay for salaries and core costs over several years, and fewer still fund schools and charities side by side. The catch is time. An Open Programme or Schools in Partnership grant can take the best part of a year, so the right moment to approach the Charity is well before the money is needed.
Finding London youth grants on Grants Hub
John Lyon's Charity is one of many funders in Grants Hub. We track 3,700+ open UK grants from 1,400+ funders, checked daily, so you can see its funds next to other London and national funders that might also cover your work. Search by location and cause to find the few worth your time.