By Vedat Mizrahi, Co-founder · 14 June 2026

Some grants open for one week a year. Two UK funders to put in your diary right now (June 2026)

Most funding advice treats "open" and "closed" as the whole story. For a lot of UK funders it isn't. Some open for a single week a year; some have just closed and won't reopen for months; some never stop. A directory that shows a funder as "open" — with no sense of when — can cost a small charity a whole year's shot at the money. I'm Vedat Mizrahi, co-founder of GrantNest. On 14 June 2026 we re-checked a set of funders on their own websites, and two of them are pure timing traps worth diarising today.

1. The Fore — opens for exactly one week, in July

The Fore is one of the most sought-after funders for small UK charities and social enterprises: unrestricted grants of up to £45,000 over one to three years, for organisations with annual income under £500,000. Unrestricted core funding at that size is rare, so demand is heavy — which is why The Fore rations access by a narrow registration window rather than a rolling form.

Their Summer 2026 round has already closed (registration ended 1 April). The next chance is the Autumn 2026 round, and registration is open for one week only: from 12:00 on Wednesday 8 July to 12:00 on Wednesday 15 July 2026. Confirmation follows on 16 July, the full application is due 7 September, and decisions land in December. If you register at 12:01 on 15 July, you've missed the year.

• Fits: small charities and social enterprises (income under £500k) that want flexible core funding and can get organised before mid-July.
• Doesn't fit: larger organisations, and anyone who treats this as a "we'll get to it" task — the whole game here is hitting a seven-day window. Set a reminder for the week of 7 July.

2. Henry Smith — its Holiday Grants just closed; don't apply yet

This is the one a database will get wrong this month. The Henry Smith Charity (now operating as the Henry Smith Foundation) runs a popular Holiday Grants programme — £500 to £3,000 for schools, youth groups and UK non-profits (income under £2m) to take disadvantaged children aged 13 and under on trips and residentials. The trouble: right now it is closed. The funder's own page states, in plain words, that "we are now closed for this application period as the funds have been allocated."

It's window-based, not gone. Applications for trips taking place between 1 October and 31 December 2026 reopen on 20 August and run to 19 November 2026 (apply at least six weeks before the trip). So the right move today is to diary 20 August — not to fire off an application into a closed programme. A funding list that still shows Henry Smith Holiday Grants as "open" is pointing you at a wall.

Full disclosure: our own list carried this as an open call until we re-checked it on 14 June and pulled it. We'd rather tell you that than leave a stale "open" up — it's the entire reason we re-verify. One thing that is open at Henry Smith: the Early Years Parenting Fund (rolling expression of interest, for effective early-years parenting support, organisations with income £100k–£5m).

Meanwhile, the funders that never close

For contrast — and so this isn't all bad news — two heavyweight rolling funders we also re-verified as open on 14 June, with no deadline at all:

• The National Lottery Community Fund — Reaching Communities England: over £20,000 (up to about £20m), for up to five years, rolling, "Open to applications". A two-stage process with a roughly 40-week decision on the larger awards, so it rewards starting early — but there's no window to miss.
• Garfield Weston Foundation — Regular Grants: up to £100,000 for core, project or capital costs, rolling, no deadline, with a decision in around four months. UK registered charities working across welfare, youth, community, arts, faith, environment, education, health and heritage.

The point: "open" has a calendar

Four funders, three different shapes of "open": one that opens for a single week (The Fore), one that just closed and reopens in late August (Henry Smith Holiday Grants), and two that never close (NLCF, Garfield Weston). A directory that flattens all of that into a green "open" badge isn't lying — it just isn't useful for the one decision that matters: do I apply this week, or diary it for later?

That's why every programme on our open-grants list carries a last-checked date, and why we pull a call the moment the funder's own page says it's closed. Before you write a word, read the funder's page — and check the window, not just the badge.