WCIT Charity - IT Grants
Background
The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT) Charity is a national charity that uses the power of tech for impact. Founded in 1987, it supports digital projects across the UK through its grant-making programme and pro bono support. The Charity is funded predominantly by generous donations from members of the WCIT Livery.
Objectives of Fund
The Charity supports digital projects that relate to one or more of its four priority areas:
- Education: Innovative approaches to improving learning outcomes or digital literacy, and technology-based educational tools.
- Inclusion: Projects addressing digital inclusion and accessibility, particularly those demonstrating a high Social Return on Investment.
- IT for Charities: Piloting new technologies that create efficiencies, improve beneficiary lives, or are scalable to the wider VCSE sector.
- Public Understanding of Technology: Covered primarily by a grant to Gresham College for free public lectures.
Projects must make use of information technology and ideally demonstrate an innovative use of tech, be scalable for wider replication, and be sustainable over time.
Value Notes
Grants are typically up to £15,000. In a minority of cases, larger grants may be considered in extraordinary circumstances, usually once a working relationship with members has been established. The Charity prefers to be the main or sole funder, or the sole funder of the tech component of a larger project. Risk-sharing with other funders will be considered.
Remaining funding for 2026 is approximately £62,000, and the success rate is currently less than 3%.
Who Can Apply
Applications are open to UK-registered charities and organisations with a formal not-for-profit constitution (such as Community Interest Companies). CICs limited by shares may apply, but must have strong collective governance with no single Person with Significant Control holding more than 50% of shares or voting rights.
The Charity targets those it can best help, and therefore does not fund:
- Start-up organisations less than a year old, or with no income or accounts.
- Organisations with an annual income or reserves of over £1 million.
- Individuals or private companies.
- Schools, academies, or PTAs (other than two existing partner schools).
- Local authorities or councils.
- Large national charities with significant income and reserves.
Location
United Kingdom. The Charity does not fund projects whose beneficiaries are abroad, even if the applicant is UK-based.
Restrictions
The Charity does not fund:
- Core running costs (including operational running costs of existing tech infrastructure).
- Commercially available off-the-shelf products.
- Apps or websites for income generation or staff administration.
- Networking or telephony costs.
- Existing projects or services.
- Projects benefitting fewer than 25 people directly.
- Projects where the service cost per beneficiary is over £300.
- Projects where the financial request is less than 25% of the entire project budget.
- Political/lobbying work.
- Loans/debt repayments.
- Work that has already been delivered.
- Consultancy costs.
- Projects that seek to build an endowment.
Eligible Expenditure
The Charity is more likely to fund the development and delivery of innovative new services, solutions, training, apps, analytics, AI, robotics, or custom-made accessibility features/hardware. Funding is for new client services and innovations, not existing activities.
How To Apply
Applications can be submitted at any time and are considered at quarterly meetings. The next deadline is 5pm on 14 August 2026, with decisions made by the end of September.
To apply:
- Read the full Application Guidelines on the WCIT Charity website.
- Complete the online application form. A Word version is available for drafting offline, but all final applications must be submitted via the portal.
Required documents vary by grant size:
- Under £5,000: Proof of charitable status, most recent accounts, safeguarding policy (if applicable), PSC Register (for CICs/CLGs).
- £5,000 - £15,000: All of the above plus Memorandum and Articles/Constitution, and one external referee.
- Over £15,000: All of the above plus most recent Annual Report/AGM minutes, and two external referees.
Applications are assessed on value for money, evidence of need, innovation, scalability, outcomes measurement, financial health, and level of risk. If not shortlisted, applicants hear back within two weeks. Shortlisted applicants usually receive a decision within 6-8 weeks of the deadline. Individual feedback is not provided due to capacity.
Pro bono support from WCIT members is also available and can be requested via the online form. Contact charity@wcit.org.uk or 020 7600 1992 for help.
