HEACHAM TRUST

What we do

Heacham Trust is a vehicle for donors to provide long term grants to UK registered charities, and is registered with the Charities Commission of England and Wales.

Charities benefit from a steady income for which they do not need to spend any money on marketing.
Donors benefit from being able to make sporadic donations to a charity (which can optimise their self-assessment tax refund); convert their one-off payments into more useful grants; and shield themselves from the marketing materials that fill inboxes and irk them knowing that their donations are not being used for the cause.

Our goal is to support charities with everlasting monthly grants, so that the charities we support can have a basic reliable income that they don't need any effort to continue with. This is especially valuable for small charities.

100% of all donations and 100% of investment income received is returned in grants. Trustees are neither paid, nor reimbursed for any expenses. We just want to give charities a stable income that they can rely upon without needing to waste resources on marketing and admin.

Are you a charity wanting to apply for a grant?

STOP

Trustees make decisions on who to support based only on input from donors when donations are received. Please don't waste your time and money writing to us directly. It goes in the bin unopened. Get on with your good deeds.

(The goal of Heacham Trust is to pass money from donors to charities as efficiently as possible. We absolutely don't want charities to waste their money on futile fund raising. Any attempt to communicate with us will be ignored).

So you want to be a donor

Whether you want to offload a windfall or create a standing order, the process is the same. You give money to the Trust, usually by direct bank transfer, and let us know how you would like it donated. We will then perform some legal checks (specifically to verify the source of funds, and verify they how you want it spent is consistent with the legal requirements), and issue you with a receipt that you can use for your HMRC tax return.

Assuming all is in order, and trustees agree, the trustees will create an everlasting monthly payment to the charities you have suggested.

We cannot accept donations in some situations, including:

If we cannot verify to the trustees satisfaction that the income is from legal activities
If, in the trustees opinion, you or your family member could receive direct or indirect benefit from the donation
If you specify wishes on how your donation will make new grants, but those grants are not charities registered in England and Wales who are eligible for gift aid themselves, then we cannot make the grants.

The decision of which charities we make grants to, and the amount, is entirely at the trustees discretion, but we will attempt to follow your wishes to the letter if we see fit, or in spirit if necessary.

Contact heachamtrust@gmail.com if you want to donate.

How much to give?

Your donation cannot last forever, and yet Heacham Trust aims to maintain grants forever. This is achieved because we aim for half of donations to support the portfolio of existing grants, and the other half is for new grants.

For the new grants, we take that budget and divide by 36 to calculate the amount to give. That means your donation will support for 3 years directly, after which it is being supported by donations from other donors, or top-ups from yourself.

For example, suppose you give £5,000. We claim gift aid to make this £6,250. Half of this (£3,125) supports legacy grants, and half (£3,125) is for new grants. 1/36th of this is the monthly value of the new grants, which we will round to £85 per month.

Donor Anonymity : (quite important)

It is a legal requirement when making a donation to a charity that the donor receives no direct or indirect benefit from the donation. This is strict, meaning that even if the donor does not wish any benefit, but the charity might inadvertently give some benefit, then it would not be legal. The claims we make for gift aid, and your claim against tax, would be invalid.

Heacham Trust can be used to add a layer of anonymity to your donation.

For example, suppose you want to support your child's nursery. If you give money directly, you are at risk of receiving special treatment for your child, making your donation invalid as a charitable donation. If Heacham Trust gives the money, your identity is hidden and there is no risk of special treatment.

Maintaining Everlasting Grants

Heacham Trust can only fulfil its mission to provide everlasting grants by relying on future donations, which would have to increase with every new grant made. This is clearly unsustainable, and there are several situations where we will cancel a grant, including:

If the awardee ceases to function
If the awardee fails to comply with the requirements of the Charities Commission
If the donor has expressed a desire to fund a specific activity, and the awardee ceases to do that activity

Trustees make these decisions.

Furthermore:

We do not increase donations with inflation, to reduce the real terms value of grants over time
If Heacham Trust is not getting enough donations, trustees will choose to cancel or reduce grants until we are financially viable
If Heacham Trust needs to wind up, all assets are distributed prorated to the monthly grant, then terminated