The Matrix Causes Fund is a charitable fund administered by Matrix. Since 2003 we have committed over £1million to national and international charitable causes. The Matrix Causes Fund is a restricted fund under the auspices of Prism the Gift Fund, UK charity no. 1099682. Members make monthly contributions to the Fund and a sub-committee considers applications for funding twice a year.
The Matrix Causes Fund provides support to organisations which promote access to justice (particularly for people trying to get support to meet their basic personal needs), equality of opportunity, or a sustainable environment.
Applications are particularly welcome from organisations whose focus is on supporting the needs of vulnerable persons such as prisoners, asylum seekers, people with mental health difficulties, people (particularly children) with disabilities, or women in refuges.
Other than in exceptional circumstances, the Fund will only provide an organisation with one-off funds of up to £5,000, or funds of up to £3,000 a year for 3 years for a specific project which supplements the organisation’s core activities.
If you have a project with which you would like financial assistance, please check the full criteria and make an application; the Criteria for Funding and Application Form can be found below.
Please note, we are no longer accepting applications for this year but we will make an announcement when applications re-open for 2024-25.
In the meantime, we are delighted to continue to support the fantastic organisations whose grant applications have already been approved. Please see below for some examples of the wonderful charities whose projects Matrix has been proud to fund.
Any enquiries about the fund and completed applications should be directed to matrixcausesfund@matrixlaw.co.uk.
Funding for charitable organisations not registered as a charity in the UK
The Matrix Causes Fund may be able to consider applications from organisations that are not registered as a charity in the UK. The organisation must be established for “charitable purposes” and be recognised by HMRC as an exempt charity. For more information please contact matrixcausesfund@matrixlaw.co.uk
Key documents
- Matrix Causes Fund Criteria for Funding
- Matrix Causes Fund UK Charities Application Form
- Matrix-Causes Fund Overseas and Non Charities Application Form Aug 2020
Celebrating £1million in charitable grants
To date, we are proud to have donated over £1million in a series of small grants to a wide range of charities throughout the UK and internationally. The work these charities undertake is incredible and has made a tangible difference to the lives of thousands. This video gives a small insight into the Fund and the work that is done by two of the charities we have supported.
Case Studies
Malawi Fruits
Malawi Fruits supports communities in Malawi to maximise household incomes through embracing modern farming technologies. Through training and access to farm equipment, Malawi Fruits seeks to empower individuals to earn their own income.
Money Granted For:
Polytunnels for Mzuzu prison and training support from staff every fortnight to facilitate sustainable farming techniques. This will prepare prisoners for their release, improve mental wellbeing whilst serving their sentence and learn new skills. The project will also provide vegetables to improve nutrition for prisoners, making a difference to prisoner welfare. Some vegetables could be sold to increase the Prisoner Welfare Fud which supplements food and provides access to hygiene products and basic medicines.
School Home Support
School Home Support exists to ensure that every child, regardless of disadvantage, has the support they need to thrive and achieve. Their mission is to get children in school, ready to learn. They work to ensure that vulnerable and disadvantaged children make the most of the education and opportunities available to them and access brighter futures.
Money Granted For:
Upskilling practitioners who work in schools and communities to directly support vulnerable children and families. The grant will provide child protection supervision skills training for SHS managers who will then train 24 practitioners across the UK who provide support to over 1,080 children.
Why Me? UK
Why me? is the national charity championing the right for victims of crime to have access to Restorative Justice, empowering people affected by crime to communicate with the offender, through a face-to-face meeting where appropriate? Their accredited and direct Restorative Justice service provides victims of serious crimes, such as historical child abuse, homicide, and sexual offences, with a route to recovery.
Money Granted For:
The designing, building and delivering of a three-day Restorative Justice Facilitation course and three training workshops on Restorative Justice for hate crime, young people and people with English as an Additional Language. Eight staff, volunteers and ambassadors (people with lived experience of restorative justice) will be trained to deliver training across England and Wales.
Arts Lab
Arts Lab is a social enterprise that uses experimental visual art to connect artists and communities for mutual benefit, inspiring creative thinking and transformation across communities with shared, hands-on involvement with and appreciation of modern art. The organisation runs outreach projects involving communities in hands on creative making – from prison officers and prisoners to health workers and people suffering from mental health difficulties; refugees and displaced persons to youth workers and young people; carers and children to teachers and students. Arts Lab supports artists to develop their practices in new, exciting ways that connect with communities.
Money Granted For:
The Matrix Causes Fund supported Phase 2 of Arts Lab’s project the Great Prison Art Exchange, an initiative to help generate income streams from prisoner artwork. The money was used to create a platform from which the project artwork could be sold to fund the continuation of workshops and equipment provision in prison.
Below are some examples of artwork from the Great Prison Art Exchange project:
Equal Rights Trust
The Equal Rights Trust exists to eliminate all forms of discrimination and ensure that everyone can participate in society on an equal basis. The Trust works with civil society organisations, government representatives and lawyers among others and provides them with the technical strategic and practical support needed to implement effective and comprehensive equality laws.
Money Granted For:
Supporting organisations and movements working to integrate Black history in the national curriculum to make effective use of international and domestic law in their advocacy. Their aim is to contribute to and serve these existing campaigns, providing evidence, networks and legal argument to bolster their work, including evidence gathering on the gap in the national curriculum and link between this gap and patterns of racial prejudice; the development and publication of a legal opinion based on this evidence and supporting campaigners to use this opinion to advocate for reform.
Student Minds
Student Minds empowers students and members of the university community to develop the knowledge, confidence and skills to look after their own mental health, support others and create change. The organisation trains students and staff in universities across the UK to deliver student-led peer support interventions as well as research-driven campaigns and workshops.
Money Granted For:
Developing a co-produced mental health intervention for LGBTQ+ students. This involves running four different training events for 48 LGBTQ+ students to equip them with the knowledge of different mental health frameworks and empower them to coproduce an effective intervention for LGBTQ+ students.
Impact of Funding:
Feedback from staff in various roles at institutions across the UK reported that the project helped them in calling for improved provision and that the research empowered them to create positive change in their services.
London Black Women’s Project
London Black Women’s Project aims to eradicate gender-based violence against black, minority ethnic and refugee women and violence against children. The organisation protects and supports women and children escaping domestic violence by providing advice, guidance, routes to learning, employability and self-sustainability.
Money Granted For:
Funding the ‘Community Rights Project’, a legal advice service for BMER women and girls who have suffered violence, providing free legal advice and assist in matters pertaining to immigration and asylum law, family law, criminal law, civil liberties and housing law. The funding provided a high quality printer and photocopier to produce high-quality leaflets and publications.
Chapter
Chapter provides direct support to over 200 people every year recovering from Serious Mental Illness (SMI), as well as supporting community groups to improve wellbeing. The organisation assists people who, because of their mental illness, need help in regaining confidence, accessing training and employment, and moving towards fulfilling their life goals.
Money Granted For:
Providing training to at least 15 people wanting to undertake volunteer training to be able to support Chapter in delivering its work helping others, despite their mental health challenges.
A grant will pay for external professionals to deliver training workshops on a number of topics over the course of a year. Delivering the workshops can be challenging in itself. People may intend to come along, but be mentally unwell that day. We therefore run short, repeated sessions.