The JJ Charitable Trust seeks to improve the effectiveness of literacy teaching in primary and secondary education for children with learning difficulties, including dyslexia.
Our work has a particular focus on areas of disadvantage and those who are at risk of non-inclusion in society and the world of work.
Funding Priorities
We updated our criteria in August 2025. This aims to be clearer about what the scheme is funding, in response to an increasing number of applications. Please check that you are still eligible before applying.
Our small grants scheme funds charities and community groups that directly help children and young people develop literacy skills, with a focus on supporting those with learning difficulties such as dyslexia.
We are keen to see applications for projects that use volunteers and reading mentors and those that help during transitional points. For example: between primary and secondary school or transitioning to college or work. We will consider grants for literacy support at any primary or secondary key stage (between ages 5 and 18).
You can see examples of work we’ve funded before on
our 360Giving page, by searching for ‘literacy’ and filter by The JJ Charitable Trust to view our literacy grants.
Funding Available
You can apply for grants between £5,000 and £20,000 spread over a period of 1, 2 or 3 years. The maximum total amount is £20,000 and you can indicate how you’d like a multi-year grant to be split over the years.
You don’t need to have a new literacy project specific for the grant – you can apply for funding for your existing literacy work.
Eligibility Criteria
- You must be a UK-based organisation.
- You need to be a registered charity, Community Interest Company, Charitable Incorporated Organisation or registered as an exempt charity.
- Priority is given to organisations with an annual income of less than £1 million – though we will consider organisations with a higher income where literacy is a new strand of work.
- You can apply again if you have previously received a grant. We have a separate re-application process consisting of a short form and conversation with us. We ask organisations who have received multiple years of funding to wait a year before re-applying, to enable us to support new applicants as well as existing grantholders. If you have previously received a grant, please get in touch and we can discuss this in more detail.
- If you have applied and been unsuccessful, we ask that you wait a year before re-applying.
We do not fund:
- Individuals
- Capital costs
- Literacy work outside the UK
- Organisations registered outside the UK
- English lessons for children learning English as an additional language
- Schools - unless this is for additional provision outside of timetabled lessons
Application Process
We make three rounds of grants per year. You can apply any time using the online application form below.
Please note: In the form, an asterisk (*) marks a compulsory field. If you accidentally miss a compulsory field, you will be returned to the top of the form, and there you will see the names of the incomplete fields. If you have already attached any additional files, you MUST re-attach them, as the validation check process removes the link to any file. The size limit of attachments is 10MB.
Please be aware that you will not receive a copy of your application form once you press submit. We recommend copying your responses into a word document if you would like to keep a copy of them.
Timeline
The programme is open to applications at any time, but we make grants three times per year. These are the cut-off points for us to consider your application:
- Spring grant round: applications by 4th March
- Summer grant round: applications by 3rd June
- Autumn grant round: applications by 1st October
You will receive a decision within eight weeks of these dates. Trustees make the final decision on which organisations to support.