Background

Velanidia is a charitable trust. Its primary objective is to support the education and training of young people in the UK and overseas. It does this by making grant awards to small operating charities concerned with the education and training of young people or by making direct grant awards to young people. Donations are made to those beneficiaries the charity trustees consider to be worthy of support and which are not otherwise supported by much larger charities.

Incorporated in 2005, the charity has raised and donated approximately £350,000 and has made grants to beneficiaries in sectors such as music, dance, sport, education and environment.

The current trustees of Velanidia are; Roger Blears, Alex Reed, Frank Daly and Nigel Spedding. The secretary is Charlotte Surridge. All trustees give their time freely and no trustee has received remuneration since incorporation.

The charity raises capital primarily from donations made by clients and connections of RW Blears LLP, typically when the firm provides ad-hoc advisory and transactional legal work on a pro bono basis to such parties and asks for a discretionary donation to be made to Velanidia in return.

The annual accounts for Velanidia for financial year ended March 2022 can be accessed here.

ActionFunder

ActionFunder is a new grant funding platform that seeks to matchmake funders (companies and foundations) with community and environmental projects so that they can fund them. The platform will create an exciting and powerful new “exchange” which enables important, innovative and impactful projects to thrive.

ActionFunder Micro-Grant Campaign – Summer 2021

Velanidia has partnered with ActionFunder as a ‘founder’ funder to take part in the beta version of the platform (which is running from May – October 2021).

The first Velanidia fund hosted on ActionFunder  launched on 21 July 2021 and is focused on the longstanding objective of Velanidia. Applications are encouraged from prospective grantees with micro funding requirements (e.g. the purchase of inventory, the subsidisation of academic pursuits or the regeneration and repair of facilities).

Up to £20,000 will be made available overall with the expectation that individual grants to shortlisted and successful applicants will be approximately £2,000 – £2,500.

It is the intention that should the operation of the campaign prove a success in partnership with ActionFunder, Velanidia will go on to launch at least two further annual campaigns on the platform with a similar strategy in the coming years.

To visit Velanidia’s funding page on ActionFunder please click here.