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The GC Gibson Charitable Trust has helped more than 1,000 small and medium sized charities since the 1970s

Recent News

Application closed

We are closing the application process today – a bit earlier than indicated but I hope no one has thought by leaving it to the last moment they might have more success. I am away for a few days and cannot monitor the process to delete the enormous amount of spam we receive. We now review the many 100s of genuine applications and will write to those who do not get onto the short list around the middle of October. Those on the short list will be informed a bit later. Please do not chase and there is no appeals process. Good luck.

News from August 2022

We are a week later in launching this application process for 2022. However we are going to keep it open until the 30th September so please take time to get you application as good as you can. There is no advantage in being early as we have developed a review process to eliminate any early mover advantage. For this year the we want to repeat the criteria we set out in the How to Apply as this works for us and for you. Good luck. The trustees.

News from September 2021

2021 Online Applications

The 2021 Online submission process is now closed. We have had over 400 applicants and will award around 12 grants. We will not be in touch for sometime and we will provide no reason for rejecting any application. Please do not contact us.

News from July 2021

2021 online application process opens

From today our 2021 online application process has opened. Good luck if you apply.

News from September 2020

Our support policy

We have consistently supported a number of charities for many years. On the whole if you get supported by us you can expect that support to last for several years at a similar level without you doing anything other than saying thank you and letting us know how you are doing. We prefer supporting smaller charities where our grant makes a difference but is not fatal if we stop supporting. As well as our traditional routes to support we now offer a number of grants through an online process on this website. These are usually once off grants but it gives us exposure to far more ideas and programmes and we do continue to support some of those new ideas. This does mean that some of our long term supported charities will lose our grant. However if you are a charity we supported last year you do not need to apply again as we already know about you. The exception is the recipients of online grants from last year where we might support again for a different idea.

News from September 2020

2020 Online applications closed

We have now closed our online application form for grants of up to £4,000. There have been some great charities applying. Without this process we would not see the range of ideas and huge commitment of so many. We had 192 applicants from which will choose around 10. Thank you to those 192 for taking part. We may ask further questions. We will ask the chosen 10 to submit their bank details and we will do some due diligence on them. Obviously many will be disappointed. However we are unable to give feedback.

News from July 2020

2020 applications

From today we can receive applications. What we want is set out in the How to Apply page.

News from August 2019

2019 Update

We apologise if you had problems submitting – it was our anti spam that is too clever for its own good but we have now stepped back to the old and it is working better. We have had about 200 applications and there are some amazing charities out there. It is a privilege to be able to learn about them by doing this. Sadly most will be disappointed but the idea is that your submission does not take too long. Please if you are a Church, Hospice or Farm School do not apply as we are well represented in supporting these already and it is impossible to judge between the different applications.

News from September 2018

2018 application process

We have now closed this year’s online application. We have had over 250 applications and we would like to thank all those who have applied. We now process them and will choose about 10 for support. If we need more information we will ask. Good luck

News from July 2017

2016 online applications – who we supported

Here are some of the charities we supported last year:

  • Roar – Connections for Life – funds to provide a vehicle for their Roar Do Feet community nail clipping service for older people
  • UCanDoIt – equipment to support their training courses to engage the elderly or disabled in digital technology and the internet
  • YMCA Cornwall – to convert a building into flats for the young homeless
  • ERIC – children’s bowel and bladder charity – for a telephone system for their helpline
  • Brogdale Collections, National Fruit Collection – to renovate their weather station for education
  • Tamworth Boxing Club – materials for an outdoor activity space
  • CESI – computers for digital literacy classes for retired Nepalese Gurkhas

As you can see there is no theme but all of them had imagination and inspiration. Above all we want to enable a small charity to achieve something that will happen with our support.

Who we are

The GC Gibson Charitable trust was established in 1968 by George Gibson by a grant of shares in his shipping business, based in Cardiff, called Atlantic Shipping. The fund today is worth £16 million and invests in quoted equities aiming to grow its capital and yet provide a income which is paid out annually in small grants to around 200 charities. Support is mainly for small and medium sized charities operating in the UK. The trustees are the grandchildren of George. All engage closely with charity. Funding is often provided for many years and the trustees put no restrictions on expenditure. Each year a few appeals are supported and new charities introduced.

Who we help

The GC Gibson Charity offers grants of between £1,000 and £10,000 to a wide range of charities. The trustees are all highly involved in various philanthropic activities and priority for support is given to charities that the trustees have previously worked with. However, the trust adds a few new charities each year.

For these new applications, we now focus on a particular theme for projects and we are able to change this from year to year. We help a diverse range of charities and our choice may be seen as a bit quirky and random but we support what appeals to the trustees using a structured process. To see what our current focus is, and to begin the application process, please see the How to apply section below.

Our History

George C Gibson was the nephew of the Welsh ship owner William James Tatem (1868–1942). Tatem was born at Appledore, North Devon, ran away to sea, suffered shipwreck and yellow fever before settling down in Cardiff in 1886 as a clerk with the tramp steamer owners Anning Bros. By 1897 he had sufficient funds to set up in business on his own and ordered the tramp steamer Lady Lewis in the name of the Lady Lewis Steamship Co. Ltd. Tatem’s business prospered; by 1900 he had 6 steamers and in 1903 there were 13 ships in his fleet. He was killed in a bombing raid on Cardiff Docks during the second world war in 1943 and  George Gibson took over the business. It still exists today but is no longer in shipping!

How to apply

Application is only by this online form, which is open yearly, this year from the 7th August to the end of September.  Please make sure your project falls within the criteria below before applying. When we close the process on the 30th September you will no longer be able to access the form to submit, unless you are an annoying nerdy spammer. We do get a lot of spam submissions, mainly from Russia, and if the spammers read this, please note that any submission outside the window is automatically deleted so will achieve nothing other than annoying us. We also have no trouble spotting spam application in the application window. If we supported you last year you should not apply through this method, but you can email us with any new projects that you feel are relevant. However, on the whole our support in this process is just for one year.

Focus for 2022

Our August online application process is now in its 10th year and the focus is staying the same.

We will support capital or product purchases for UK registered charities in the areas of education, of social inclusion, and of physical and mental health for all ages anywhere in the world. There is no bias either for or against any religion and we recognise the enormous support religious people give in the areas we support. We will give 10 grants of up to £5,000. The projects that we support should have a maximum cost of £20,000 ie we will not offer a small contribution to a large project.

In this process we will only support smaller charities, those whose income from donations from the public, and from Trusts or Foundations, is up to £1 million. Please don’t ask us what this means, as we cannot respond. If you are asking it probably means you do not qualify. Any questions, and we do not guarantee we can or will answer them, in fact we almost certainly will not, should be sent to gcgibsoncharity@gmail.com

For this online process we will not support the following so please do not apply:

  • The fabric of Christian Churches
  • Hospices
  • Educational farms
  • Riding and carriage driving for the disabled
  • Cancer care and research
  • Theatres
  • Museums

This online process is only a small part of our charitable giving and we already provide significant support to the above charitable sectors.

I am sorry this all sounds rather defensive but we just do not want people to waste their time. We do respond to everyone by the end of October but we do not tell you why you failed.

Please keep it simple and enjoy doing it. In simple terms it is likely that short applications do better. Take your time – there will be no advantage in being early. If we want more information we will contact you. You will be informed during November of our decisions. Please do not chase us and we will not respond to chases or answer any questions.

Contact

You can contact us by email only on gcgibsoncharity@gmail.com WE DO NOT RESPOND TO OR ACKNOWLEDGE LETTERS received by post or phone calls – Sorry!

Feedback will not be given. Once again apologies for our rather aggressive avoidance of contact. We are just family trustees trying to help as many charities as possible.

Complete the form below keeping the descriptions short and simple.

Step 1 of 3 · Contact information
Step 2 of 3 · Charity information
Step 3 of 3 · Grant information

N.B. Applications are now closed.
They will reopen on 1 August 2023