Paul Hamlyn Foundation fund closes to new applicants due to ‘volume of demand’

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF) is closing its Arts Fund to new applicants for the next 18 months.

The fund is an important source of support for arts and culture across the UK, offering three-year grants of between £90,000 and £300,000 to support work “at the intersection of arts and social change”.  

The foundation said the current “unprecedented demand” for grants had seen the success rate for applications to the fund more than halve over the past four years.

The announcement comes after the charity refreshed the fund in April 2024, moving to a model of funding based on rounds rather than a rolling process. The foundation said that the current model is not “working as well as it could be”.

It said: “In the two rounds to date, we received 816 applications from arts organisations, requesting a total of £166m. By comparison, the Arts Fund’s annual budget is £6.5m. This means that, despite the quality of many applications, only 7% of organisations were successful.

“The volume of demand means the success rate has more than halved over the past four years.”

Given the level of demand, the foundation said it was “thinking carefully about how to maintain a healthy balance between renewing grants to organisations we already fund while also seeking opportunities to support new organisations whose work resonates with our mission”.

“We believe an open application process should be as effective and worthwhile as possible for those applying, and we don’t think the current model is working as well as it could be,” it said.

“To improve this, we will consider different approaches over the next year, and will share our thinking as it takes shape.”

For the next financial year, the charity will revisit a small number of applications that were declined in the last two rounds, and will renew grants with some organisations whose funding is coming to an end over the next year. 

It will make grants to a total value of £6.5m in 2026/27, the same level of funding as in the previous year. It will not be open to new applications or expressions of interest for that time.

The foundation’s head of programme – arts, Shoubhik Bandopadhyay, said that due to the high demand, “inevitably, it can feel disheartening, for applicants and for us, when so much energy is invested in applications that we are unable to fund”.

“That’s why we’ve decided not to open to new applications for the time being,” he said. “Instead, we will focus on the exceptionally large pool of applicants we already have. We believe this will help manage expectations and capacity, and allow us to explore other ways of supporting the sector more effectively.

“We know that across the third sector we see more organisations turning to private funds as statutory funding hasn’t kept pace with increasing costs. This is why it is important to emphasise that we aren’t reducing our funding for this upcoming year and expect to award a similar number of grants.”

Bandopadhyay said that, since the new funding model launched in 2024, PHF had held 88 meetings with shortlisted organisations, prompting it to think more critically about its role as a funder.

“These connections have highlighted a potential role for us – not just as a funder, but as a connector and convenor,” he said.

“This realisation is prompting us to reflect on the skills and capabilities we need as a team to fulfil this role effectively. We’re now exploring how we can add value to the field by strengthening our evaluation, communication, and convening functions.”