The AB Charitable Trust (ABCT) was established in 1990 by Yves Bonavero with Anne Bonavero to support unpopular causes that championed human dignity and to focus on small and medium-sized charities working close to the ground. The Trust has no endowment and is funded annually by the Bonaveros. The Trust has awarded around £23 million in grants since 1990.

The values that underpin its work are:

• Justice - it seeks to support people most marginalised and excluded by society.
• Collaboration – it aims to build mutually beneficial relationships with the people it works with.
• Efficiency – it maintains high standards of administrative efficiency and cost effectiveness.
• Learning – it is committed to learn from its grant making to inform future practice.

The Trust aims to support charities that promote human dignity and defend the human rights of marginalised and excluded people in the UK.

The grants range in size, with most grants being in the range of £10,000 to £30,000 per year and are awarded from one to three years.

The fund is in high demand, and only around a third of eligible applicants will receive funding.

Charities registered and working in the UK can apply.

To be eligible, organisations must:

• Have a mission, aims and objectives aligned with one of the four priority areas. This must be either the sole focus, or the majority of their work. Organisations with a broader remit are unlikely to be funded.
• Be registered as a UK charity, delivering work in the UK
• Have an annual income between £150,000 and £1.5 million (this applies to the most recent signed accounts and the two subsequent financial years – this would include draft figures and forecasts).
• Have operated for at least a year and be able to provide a full year’s audited or independently examined accounts.

Examples of previously funded charities include:

• Assist Sheffield
• Asylum Support Appeals Project
• Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile
• City of Sanctuary
• Great Yarmouth Refugee Support
• Oasis Cardiff
• Positive Action in Housing
• Women's Therapy Centre
• Blackfriars Advice Centre
• Norfolk Community Law Service
• Disability Law Service
• Bounceback Foundation
• Hibiscus Initiatives
• Prison Reform Trust
• Vision Housing Consultancy Service

The following are ineligible for support:

• Individuals.
• The promotion of religion.
• Capital appeals.
• Academic research.
• Charities with large national links.

ABCT supports charities working where human dignity is imperilled and where there are opportunities for human dignity to be affirmed.

To be eligible, projects should address at least one of the following categories:

Migrants and refugees

In this priority area, funding is available to support:

• Organisations that support communities who migrate to the UK, and people who are refugees or seeking asylum.
• Work addressing destitution through provision of accommodation support, trafficking and exploitation, support for people held in immigration detention, and for groups facing discrimination for protected characteristics including racialised groups.
• Delivering services, policy advocacy and influencing, campaigning, narrative change work, and community organising, or some combination of these approaches.

The funders are particularly interested in the use of the law as a tool for social change, to address injustices at individual and systemic levels.

The criminal legal system and penal reform

In this priority area, funding is available to support:

• Services that improve outcomes for individuals (and their families) who are at risk of contact with or within the justice system (at any stage, from prevention to police to courts and prison).
• organisations working with those on the sharpest end of sentencing (including joint enterprise and IPP); and those subject to state injustice (such as miscarriages of justice, or deaths in custody).
• Delivering services, policy advocacy and influencing, campaigning, narrative change work, and community organising, or some combination of these approaches.

The funders are interested in the use of the law as a tool for social change, to address injustices at individual and systemic levels.

Access to justice

In this priority area, funding is available for charities which do any or all of the following:

• Provide specialist legal advice and representation.
• That are experts in a particular area of law and those that provide specialist advice to the most marginalised groups.
• That conduct work (including campaigning, policy, narrative change, and strategic legal action) which focuses on defending and improving the system in which people can obtain justice, and work that seeks to strengthen the rule of law. 

The human rights framework

In this priority area, funding is available for charities which do any or all of the following:

• Deliver activities to protect the human rights framework and the principles of human rights and the rule of law, including campaigning, advocacy, and narrative change work.
• Note: this does not include single issue or single right campaigning work, or human rights work focused on particular groups, unless these are captured by the Trust's other funding streams.

Some examples of work that might be supported under this priority, include organisations that:

• Focus on advocacy and campaigning around human rights legislation and application in the UK.
• Undertake legal representation and litigation for victims of human rights abuses.
• Support individuals, communities and statutory bodies to understand their human rights.

For all priority areas, the Trust usually supports single focus organisations working solely in priority areas. For these organisations, core funding (unrestricted grants) or project funding (restricted grants) are both available. On occasion it also accepts restricted grant applications from charities working more broadly, where the project is particularly focused, forms a significant strand, and the charity can show it is best placed to deliver the work.

Applications are considered four times a year.

The next deadlines for applications are:

• 30 January 2026 for decisions in April 2026.
• 24 April 2026 for decisions in July 2026.
• 31 July 2026 for decisions in October 2026.

An online application form is available to complete on the AB Charitable Trust's website. Initially, applicants are advised to select the priority that they wish to apply under to be taken through a four-step process to determine their eligibility before completing and submitting the full application.

Contact the A B Charitable Trust for further information.