UCF small grants are typically up to $2,000 and this amount – a “small grant” – can make all the difference to whether a program or project is implemented or not.
While we call them small grants, their impact can be huge:
- In Adelaide – a new freezer makes the difference between accepting more food for the community or having to turn it away
- In Africa – the difference between students sitting on dirt floors or having desks and chairs built
- At Oakbank – new trot poles so disabled riders could resume their trail and traffic courses after relocation to Oakbank
The pictures below depict just a few of the more than 50 small grants that UCF has awarded since it’s beginnings in 2011 when a group of successful Adelaide business people decided they wanted to “pay it forward”.
Click on a picture to see the other UCF small grants in your particular area of interest.
Balloons, bubbles and smile-on-a-stick are just some of the resources a UCF small grant provided to Clown Doctors visiting children in hospitals in South Australia.
A UCF small grant in September 2013 helped finish Suneden Special School’s new sensory playground. In December 2014, we awarded a second grant for another project.
A UCF small grant is helping YPDR to build more houses in Eastern Samar, Philippines after 47,000 houses were devastated by Typhoon Ruby in December 2014.
A UCF small grant has helped the John Fawcett Foundation to run free eye clinics and provide medicine and glasses in Bali. Even babies are born with glaucoma in this population.
Local heroes deserve a helping hand
In many cases small non-profits full of “local heroes”, whether in Australia or overseas, just don’t have the staff, time, experience, or the expertise to apply for grants for their special programs. At UCF we’re different – our grant application can be completed in just an hour or two and applications are assessed monthly.
The Universal Charitable Fund (UCF) was founded by local business people in South Australia as a simple and cost effective way to provide practical support and encouragement to local charities doing a terrific job in helping people in need both in Australia and overseas.
Why should you donate to UCF?
Why not donate direct to a charity? Very often your donation goes into a large bucket of general funds to help a well-known, specific cause. The majority of those are high profile large organisations which are supported by Foundation and Government grants as well as generous individuals such as yourself – all very valuable and needed.
However – the small non-profits generally miss out. The small charities we fund:
- typically do not have large grant support;
- seldom have more than one, or very few, paid staff
Yet they are often providing much needed services and have projects which their meager budgets simply don’t stretch to cover. Take a look at the grants we’ve made since 2011 and you’ll get the idea.
We encourage you to know exactly where your money is being spent, so we’ll send you a monthly newsletter telling you about the small grants approved that month and a link to their write-up on the UCF website. You can also sign up for the newsletter at the bottom of the page.
When the project UCF funded is complete, we require a grant acquittal which often comes with a photo or two showing the happy result – we add these to the original post as they are received, so you can always go back to check on something you are particularly interested in.
Consider it – just $166 per month, or a gift of $2,000 will fund one UCF small grant per year. No overheads, no administration fees – just getting it done!
You can, of course, donate any amount you wish – large or small, we’re grateful for it all!
The UCF approach is on “keeping it simple” with contributors to the fund – like you – making a monthly, or one-off donation with a method to suit you. All receipting and monthly grant updates are sent electronically to keep down overhead expenses.
