Combined Theatrical Charities Appeals Council

The Combined Theatrical Charities Appeals Council, known publicly as Acting for Others, is a UK umbrella charity established in 1966 to unite longstanding theatrical benevolent funds into a collaborative force providing financial, emotional, and practical support to individuals across the theatre profession facing hardship. Backed by prominent figures like President Dame Judi Dench, it embodies compassion, inclusivity, and sectoral solidarity, pooling funds from national campaigns, theatre collections, and donations to distribute via 14 specialist member charities—such as Equity Charitable Trust and Actors’ Children’s Trust—ensuring responsive aid for precarious careers in a vital cultural sector.

It prioritises welfare for theatre workers (actors, backstage crew, front-of-house, dancers, creatives, retirees, and their families), funding emergency hardship grants, counselling, debt relief, care home contributions, retraining, benefit advice, and child support during crises like illness, unemployment, or pandemics. Support targets individual wellbeing and resilience, not theatre productions or organisational programming.

Eligible applicants are strictly its pre-selected UK-registered member charities—small to medium-sized, theatre-focused entities with proven track records—operating UK-wide (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland); unsolicited applications from new organisations are not accepted. Individuals seek help confidentially via these members on a rolling, case-by-case basis, with no public deadlines or forms.

Grants vary by need (annual distributions ~£387,000 as of 2024), channelled primarily through partners to minimise bureaucracy. Distinctively, it avoids core costs, projects, or non-theatre activities, standing out as the theatre sector's central welfare hub fostering mutual aid and crisis prevention.