Finn Family Fund

The Finn Family Fund is a UK-registered charitable trust established in July 2007 by Leo Finn, bolstered by a matching grant from the Northern Rock Foundation for ex-employees. Its core mission is to support disadvantaged young people or voluntary organisations working on their behalf, offsetting challenges and enhancing future life chances through targeted grants that leverage small investments to attract further funding and drive sustainable change. Rooted in the founder's vision of extending opportunity and reducing disadvantage, the fund emphasises pragmatic, high-impact giving with minimal bureaucracy, low operating costs, and unpaid trustees focused on youth-led positive outcomes.

It prioritises projects addressing youth disadvantage via education, social development, health, and well-being initiatives, primarily funding voluntary sector efforts like grassroots youth groups and community programmes. While open to diverse interventions, it favours those demonstrating measurable impact and potential to unlock larger support.

Eligible applicants include UK-registered charities and community groups of any geographic base, though it primarily targets North East England and Cumbria with flexibility for UK-wide projects strongly aligned to its mission; it prefers small to medium organisations with modest incomes over large nationals. Applications are welcomed unsolicited via email with a concise proposal, governing documents, accounts, and impact evidence—no online portal required.

Grants typically range from £100 to £3,000 (average ~£1,195), focusing on project costs, some capacity building, or related core expenses; exclusions include large capital appeals, general unrestricted funding, and retrospective costs. Reviewed rolling basis at quarterly trustee meetings (2-3 months to decision), its distinctive ex-employee heritage, regional rootedness, and strategy of catalysing bigger change via modest grants set it apart from broader youth funders.