Jean Sainsbury Animal Welfare Trust

Dedicated to supporting charities that rescue, rehabilitate, release, and rehome animals in need.

From the windswept coasts of Northern Scotland and bustling cities across the UK to the remote slopes of the Himalayas, we provide grants to a wide range of animal welfare charities. By focusing on smaller organizations, our funding creates a meaningful impact—transforming the lives of animals and the people who care for them. Since its founding in 1982 by Mrs. Jean Sainsbury—no relation to the supermarket family—JSAWT has awarded over £12 million to nearly 1,000 charities. While our roots were in UK-based support, a generous legacy from Mr. Joseph Shuman, in memory of his wife Joyce, allowed us to extend funding to UK-registered charities working overseas.

Who can apply

The Trust favours applications from smaller animal welfare charities registered in the UK and working in the UK or abroad:

• Which have independently examined up to date annual accounts.

• Which demonstrate an active re-homing and rehabilitation policy for animals taken into their care.

• Involved with conservation of wildlife, when the rescue, rehabilitation and (where possible) the release of animals is their main aim.

Restrictions

The Trust will not support:

1. Applications from individuals.

2. Charities registered outside the UK.

3. Charities offering sanctuary to animals, with no effort to re-home, foster or rehabilitate unless endangered species.

4. Charities that bring animals from overseas to the UK will not receive support unless they are also supporting ongoing/doing work in the country of origin (such as vet work and/or helping local shelters).

5. Charities that do not have a realistic destruction policy for animals that cannot be given a reasonable quality of life.

6. Charities with cash and/or investments valued at more than one year’s expenditure will not qualify for a donation, unless it can be demonstrated that reserves are being held specifically for a project.

7. Charities that spend more than a reasonable proportion of their annual income on administration or cannot justify their costs per animal helped.

8. Veterinary Schools, unless the money can be seen to be directly benefiting the type of animals the Trust would want to support e.g. welfare-related or low-cost first opinion vet treatment projects.

The Trust expects all applicants to be charities registered with the Charity Commission unless their annual income is under £5,000. 

Eligible Expenditure

The Trust aims to support UK registered charities by making donations toward the following:

• General running costs associated with the rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing or release of domestic, wild and exotic animals.

• Feeding, capture, neutering and release of feral cats.

• Assistance with vets’ fees and neutering costs of animals owned by those on low incomes.

• Donations towards capital purchases involving land, buildings, vehicles, equipment and educational material. The Trustees may pledge funds towards large capital building projects, which will only be released when all other funding is in place and the work is ready to commence. The maximum pledge we will give is £35k.

• Donations toward the purchase or improvement of property or fixed buildings are only considered if: ?the property is clearly in the ownership of the charity, or

• at least 10 years is left to run on the charity’s lease, or

• a letter from the landowner states that the charity will be reimbursed for the improvements on sale of the property or at the end of the lease. Otherwise, support for improvements can only be considered when they do not increase the saleable value of the property.

How to apply

If you wish to apply for a donation from the Trust would you please:

Carefully check the list of policy guidelines to make sure that your organisation fits our criteria for consideration.

If your organisation appears to meet our criteria, please follow the instructions below:

Contact the trust here Contact | Get in Touch Today — Jean Sainsbury Animal Welfare Trust and request and application form

Email the relevant Application Form to us together with the following

With the email attach your most recent audited or independently examined accounts. Please apply to us at the time closest to your newest accounts having just been signed and confirmed by your independent examiner.

Also with the email attach a newsletter or similar giving us info on the work of your charity.

Please do not send originals as these cannot be returned to you.

We process this data in accordance with our Privacy Policy which is available on our website - https://www.jeansainsburyanimalwelfare.org.uk/privacy/