This is the first step in applying to the Shears Foundation. Please let us know quickly who you are and whether you fit our criteria. This process will create an account for you on our website, and at the same time will let you (and us) know whether you can proceed to the full application form.

A valid email address. All emails from the system will be sent to this address. The email address is not made public and will only be used if you wish to receive a new password or wish to receive certain news or notifications by email.
Several special characters are allowed, including space, period (.), hyphen (-), apostrophe ('), underscore (_), and the @ sign.
Provide a password for the new account in both fields.
If your charity or company number cannot be verified by our system but you are sure it is correct, or you are registered in Scotland, please tick this box and enter the number in the text box below. This will allow you to progress your application.

Your project or activity must fit into one or more of the following categories in order to apply for a grant from the Shears Foundation. If you are unable to tick one or more of the category boxes below then please do not continue with this application.

Project Categories
Please choose one of the above categories as the primary focus of your organisation's activities.

Furthermore, we do not support any of the following. If your project or activity falls into any of the categories below then please do not continue with this application.

Ruled out categories
Any changes to this must be agreed in writing by the trustees of the Shears Foundation.
This should include all of your costs as well as details of how additional funding over and above that you are seeking from the Shears Foundation will be raised.
You can read our privacy statement here.

We place a great deal of emphasis in supporting groups whose work is in the Tyne & Wear and Northumberland regions. Applications from charities working in these areas will be given priority. We are also developing our support for groups in North Yorkshire (including York), West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. We do occasionally consider some applications from other regions and for International projects but these are much less likely to receive our support.

When you are ready, click "Create new account" below to create your account on our site.