Larger Humanitarian Grants case study: The Army Benevolent Fund Small grant programme case  study: The Jubilee Sailing Trust Eye disease case study: Royal  National Institute of the Blind

Sir Jules Thorn was a great humanitarian and whilst his endowment was provided primarily for medicine and medical research, he was content for some funds to be allocated to appeals of a humanitarian nature. Accordingly, the Trustees earmark some resources each year for such purposes. The Trust receives many more appeals than it can support with a grant. Each case is treated on its merits and the Trustees' policy is to spread the funds as widely as possible. The Trust has two programmes: (1) Small Grants Programme The Trust receives numerous appeals from fund-raising charities. Those which are successful are awarded grants of up to £1,500. Many charities have received grants over a number of years.   Requests are considered for contributions to core funding or for specific projects, but this programme does not provide substantial sums for capital appeals. Relatively modest grants can be very important to the work of many charities, as the following illustrates: “Your donation of £750 far exceeded a day’s collecting in the rain recently by our team of volunteers outside Sainsbury’s and was on a par with our last fund-raising event locally which again involved a lot of work by volunteers” Christine Ward, Chairman, Equipment for Disabled Children (2) Larger Humanitarian Grants Although this programme is not a major part its grant-making activities, the Trust has been a consistent supporter of the humanitarian work of a limited number of charities who have received funding over a period of years.