This initiative is not open to funding enquiries or applications.

The Clothworkers’ Foundation occasionally funds work that complements its grant-making in the Open and Proactive Grants Programmes, or where it may inform the wider grant-making sector.

Strategic Funding for Visual Impairment

In recent years, we have made strategic grants to non-medical research for organisations working in visual impairment, one of our key areas of interest. For example, in 2017 we awarded £45,000 to Action Against Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AAAMD) for work aimed at transforming research funding into age-related macular degeneration. In 2019, we awarded £50,000 to Fight for Sight for a report on ophthalmology research in the UK aimed at developing an evidence base highlighting the underfunding of vision related research in the UK.

In 2020, we awarded an additional £250,000 to AAAMD towards the first two stages (over three years) of the organisation’s strategy involving validating existing data and creating a large-scale, data-driven project using participants’ data and Artificial Intelligence for diagnosis of early age related macular degeneration. Read more ...

Funding for Domestic and Sexual Abuse

Another key area of focus for The Foundation is domestic and sexual abuse. We awarded 18 grants (in excess of £387,000) through the Open Grants Programme in 2020 alone. Read more ...

In 2019, we awarded £200,000 to Comic Relief as the lead partner to deliver Tech vs Abuse 2, providing grants to sector organisations for testing and building creative digital solutions, co-designed with users, to improve the safety of people affected by abuse. Read more ...

In 2020, acknowledging its experience and expertise in the sector, we awarded £250,000 to Winner, Preston Road Women’s Centre, for the Women in Safe Homes (WISH) programme, a response to the shortage of quality move-on accommodation women’s organisations face across the UK. Read more ...