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.