Help The Homeless

What Help The Homeless does

Help The Homeless is a UK-registered grant-giving charitable trust (Registered Charity No. 271988) founded in 1975 to support homeless people across the United Kingdom. The trust's single product is the provision of small capital grants of up to £5,000 to small charitable organisations with annual turnover under £500,000 that work wholly or mostly with homeless people. Eligible applicants must be registered with the Charity Commission in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, or be a registered Scottish charity, and projects are restricted to capital costs such as building refurbishments, accommodation upgrades, and physical equipment — explicitly excluding running costs, salaries, and IT equipment. Applications are submitted exclusively via an online JotForm portal and are reviewed on a quarterly cycle with deadlines on the 20th of March, June, September, and December, with decisions issued within eight weeks of each deadline.

The organisation operates without any full-time staff — contact is handled via a Secretary and a website form, and the trust cannot accept telephone calls. Revenue is generated entirely through donations from the public, Gift Aid, legacies, and passive online donation infrastructure including the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) Donate platform, the PayPal Giving Fund, and the Remember A Charity legacy scheme. There is no proprietary technology, no mobile app, no disclosed AI capabilities, and no disclosed headcount growth or strategic expansion beyond the digitization of the application process. The trust's market is strictly domestic (United Kingdom) and its customer base is a long tail of small grassroots homelessness charities; recent grant recipients disclosed in the input include Lifeline Harrogate (£4,000), Dover Outreach Centre (£5,000), and Back on Track (£3,000).

Name

Help The Homeless

Legal name

Help the Homeless

Website

https://help-the-homeless.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1975

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Help The Homeless is a UK-registered grant-giving trust founded in 1975 that provides capital grants of up to £5,000 to small grassroots charities working wholly or mostly with homeless people across the United Kingdom.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Charitable Grant Funding

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Private Foundations (BPAGAKAA)

Keywords

• Charitable grants
• Homelessness funding
• Small charity grants
• Capital project funding
• Grant-making trust

Headquarters

HQ city

Southwick

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Others, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations and Charitable Contributions: Help the Homeless generates revenue through donations from the public, including single donations and regular giving. UK taxpayers can Gift Aid their donations. The charity also receives legacies through wills.
2. PayPal Giving Fund: The charity receives donations through the PayPal Giving Fund platform (paypal.com/gb/fundraiser/charity/3135275), which allows donors to make secure online contributions.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Help the Homeless is a grant-giving charitable trust founded in 1975 that awards small capital grants of up to £5,000 to UK-registered small charities (annual turnover under £500,000) working wholly or mostly with homeless people. Applications are submitted via an online form, reviewed quarterly (deadlines 20 March, June, September, December), and decisions are issued within eight weeks. The trust funds capital projects such as building refurbishments, accommodation upgrades, and equipment purchases (excluding computers/IT), but does not fund running costs, core costs, salaries, or individuals.

Product overview

Help the Homeless is a single-offering grant-giving trust charity that provides small capital grants (up to £5,000) to UK-registered small charities with annual turnover under £500,000. The core service is the grant-giving program, which funds capital projects for homeless charities including kitchen refurbishments, accommodation refurbishments, and learning centre equipment. The organisation does not fund individuals, running costs, salaries, or general community work unrelated to homelessness.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Grant-Giving Trust Programme

Quantifiable outcome

• Grants of up to £5,000 provided to small homelessness charities for capital projects

Named customers3 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Charities Aid Foundation (CAF)coreGTM or Marketing PartnerHelp the Homeless uses the CAF Donate platform (cafdonate.cafonline.org/4142) for processing online donations. This partnership enables secure online giving for donors and extends the charity's reach to CAF's donor network.
• PayPal Giving FundminorGTM or Marketing PartnerHelp the Homeless receives donations through the PayPal Giving Fund platform, providing an additional digital giving channel for supporters.
• Remember A CharityminorGTM or Marketing PartnerHelp the Homeless participates in the Remember A Charity scheme, which promotes legacy giving in wills. The scheme helps the charity attract bequests from supporters who include gifts in their wills.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Emerging players

• Crisis UK: Major national UK charity working directly to end homelessness through services, advocacy, and research. Not a grant-maker itself but operates in the same homelessness sector that Help the Homeless supports.
• St Mungo's: Large UK charity providing homelessness services including supported housing. Operates in the homelessness space funded by Help the Homeless-style grant-makers.

Others

• Homeless Link: National membership body for homelessness charities in England. Comparable as an adjacent ecosystem participant supporting the same small UK homelessness charities that Help the Homeless funds.

Broad incumbents

• National Lottery Community Fund: UK's largest community grant funder distributing hundreds of millions to charities including homelessness projects. Comparable as a UK grant-maker serving small charities, but at vastly greater scale.
• Paul Hamlyn Foundation: UK grant-making foundation supporting social change including homelessness and disadvantage. Comparable as a UK charitable grant-maker, though operating at significantly greater scale and broader thematic scope.
• Esmée Fairbairn Foundation: UK grant-making foundation funding social change including work with people experiencing disadvantage. Comparable as a UK charitable foundation, though with much larger grant sizes and broader portfolio.
• Garfield Weston Foundation: One of the UK's largest family-funded grant-making foundations, supporting a wide range of charities including those addressing homelessness. Comparable as a major UK grant-maker but with broader remit and substantially larger grant sizes.

Direct peers

• The Oglesby Charitable Trust: Small UK grant-giving trust providing capital and project grants to registered charities. Highly comparable as a small UK charitable trust making capital-style grants to community organisations.
• Lloyds Bank Foundation: UK charitable foundation funding small and medium-sized charities tackling disadvantage, including homelessness, with multi-year grants. Comparable as a UK grant-giving foundation targeting charities working with vulnerable populations.
• Tudor Trust: UK grant-making trust supporting smaller community-led charities working with disadvantaged people. Highly comparable model of small-grant, trust-based giving to grassroots UK charities.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/help-the-homeless

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Help The Homeless