THE MARC FITCH FUND
Small grants, usually for under £5,000, are available to UK registered charities and individuals for projects, publications and research that focuses on local and regional history across the United Kingdom.
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o Application deadline: SATURDAY 1st MARCH 2025. A second and final deadline for 2025 is provided in the main article below.
o Funder: The Marc Fitch Fund (founded 1956. Charity number 313303. Total value of all grants awarded during the year ended 5 April 2024: £135,733 (2023: £368,102; 2022: £110,898; 2021: £52,803)).
o Who can apply: UK registered charities. Individuals may also apply for grant support.
o Key Words: Local and Regional History, Archaeology, Historical Geography, Heraldry, Genealogy, Conservation, Antiquarian Studies, Research, Publications, Libraries, Archives, Individuals, United Kingdom.
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The Marc Fitch Fund generally awards small grants, augmented by the occasional larger grant, towards the costs of publishing scholarly work in the fields of British and Irish national, regional and local history, archaeology, antiquarian studies, historical geography, the history of art and architecture, heraldry, genealogy and surname studies, archival research, artefact conservation and the broad fields of the heritage, conservation and the historic environment.
Please note that the Charity is a ‘funder of last resort’, stepping in to assist worthwhile projects that are at risk of failing without a grant, and where other sources of funds have been exhausted. For that reason, the Charity will ask applicants to explain why a grant is necessary and to demonstrate that they have made an effort to secure funding from other sources. The Fund also places great emphasis on the reports of referees and will expect to be convinced that the work being funded will make a new and significant contribution to knowledge.
The following funding streams are available:
1. Pre-publication grants: these are principally intended to help authors meet the cost of commissioning illustrative material or paying for reproduction licences. They can also be used to cover the costs of travel and accommodation within the UK and Ireland to visit libraries and archives or to commission specialist reports or translation services. Grants are not intended to cover the cost of time spent in research and writing. To qualify, your work must already have been provisionally accepted for publication.
2. Publication grants: these are primarily intended to subsidise the costs of publication in circumstances where the publisher requires a subvention; for example, in order to increase the number of illustrations, to print in colour rather than monochrome or to reduce the retail price of the book.
3. Special Project Grants: from time to time the Fund considers applications for special projects that do not fit easily into one of the above categories, such as the conservation and study of significant artefacts or the cataloguing of collections. To qualify, original research and the publication of the results has to be part of the project.
4. Journal digitisation: the Fund is also willing to consider applications from local and national archaeological and historical societies towards the costs of publishing their journal backlists online, on condition that the results are deposited in a trusted digital repository and made available to all, without charge and in perpetuity. To be eligible for such funding, applicants must be able to demonstrate that they already have 50% of the costs in the bank.
During the year ended 5 April 20243, the Fund awarded 9 grants to UK charities totalling £47,093 (2023: 20 grants totalling £274,372; 2022: 19 grants totalling £80,898; 2021: 14 grants totalling £47,716). Grants totalling £88,640 (2023: £93,730; 2022: £30,090; 2021: £22,368) were also made to individuals. The majority of grants were for £5,000 or less.
A list of all grants awarded to charities over the last two years can be found on pages 14 and 15 of the Charity’s annual accounts.
Funding is not available for:
o Building works.
o Fieldwork.
o Foreign travel nor for research outside the UK/Ireland unless the circumstances are very exceptional.
o General appeals.
o Mounting exhibitions.
o Organising or attending conferences.
o New or revised editions of works already published.
o Scientific and technical research.
o The costs of getting to the UK/Ireland from overseas.
o Vocational or educational courses of any kind, including postgraduate and doctoral research, or
o Works principally concerned with the most recent past (post 1945).
The Charity has two deadlines for application each year, on:
o 1st March, and
o 1st August.
The next application deadline is therefore on Saturday 1st March 2025.
To apply, applicants are required to provide a brief project outline. If the Fund is interested in taking the project proposal further, it will issue an application form together with details about how to make an application.
Further information and guidance is available on the Charity’s website.