We are often approached by parents and teachers regarding sources of possible sponsorship for children attending our courses. This can be a time-consuming and dispiriting exercise for anyone embarking on it for the first time. The following guidelines might be useful...

• Small sums of money for weekend courses or Saturday GIFT Masterclasses can often be raised by making a written request to local organizations like: The Rotary Club, The Round Table, Inner Wheel, Soroptomists Club, The Chamber of Commerce, British Legion, Lions Club, Masonic Lodges. Addresses and telephone numbers are in the local telephone directory but appear inconsistently sometimes under business numbers, sometimes under residential numbers, and sometimes both!
• Small sums and larger sums (for Summer/Easter schools) can be obtained from local educational trusts and charities. A list of these is held at most local reference libraries and at all central libraries. The charities are peculiar to your own parish and county and are sometimes obscure and ancient requiring strange application criteria e.g. from the 3rd (left handed) son of a wheelwright born within the parish of Shellow Bowells. The county trusts and charities are almost always straightforward.
• For larger sums you need to approach the minefields of the standard registers of charitable trusts. All libraries hold copies of these. The main registers are:

The Directory of Grant-Making Trusts

A Guide to the Major Trusts (2 vols.)

The Grant Register

The Educational Grants Directory

The extraction of pertinent information from these requires patience. Three of the most supportive trusts in these volumes are:

Ensure that your request for assistance fulfils the application criteria. Their rules cannot be bent. The Charity Commissioners are always very good when approached with requests. The public are encouraged to use their records and staff are very helpful in the use of computer terminals. They will happily talk the computer illiterate through the system BUT they will not extract the information for you. Their record and public access centres are at:

Whatever the application, make your point clearly and concisely and do not underestimate your difficulties. Many trusts have small amounts of money that are difficult to disperse and will be only too pleased to offer assistance. Trusts and charities must abide by their constitution and their rules are strictly enforced by the Charity Commissioners. If in doubt, ask the trust for the best way to present your application.

If you get into real difficulties, GIFT will always be happy to try and help.