Frequently asked questions

The programme is open to a wide range of organisations, including registered charities, limited companies, charitable incorporated organisations, community interest companies, or unincorporated groups. 

As part of the application process, organisations will be asked to provide key details about their structure and activities. If you intend to work in partnership with other organisations, please ensure this is clearly outlined in the "partners" section of the application form.

An individual cannot apply on their own behalf as all financial grants need to be made to organisations.  

If an individual has an idea and wants to put in an application, they need to align with an organisation that is willing to put in the application on their behalf, take responsibility for funding, project delivery and reporting.  

Any organisation that is not a registered charity or organisation with its own bank account is not able to receive funding. Therefore, if an organisation is in this situation and wants to put in a bid, they need to align with a partner organisation that is willing to take responsibility for the application, funding, project delivery and reporting.  

We do not accept applications from marketing, PR or advertising agencies, research bodies or market research organisations.  

The programme is designed to support projects that engage with and inform Black, Asian, mixed heritage or minority ethnic or faith/belief communities. We do not look to fund research projects. 

We do not accept applications from current staff members of NHS Blood and Transplant.

The focus of the proposed projects must be one of the following: 

Deceased organ donation

We encourage applications from all ethnic minority communities to raise awareness of, and participation in deceased donation. Other forms of organ donation may be referenced in applications, but the focus must be on deceased organ donation.

Blood donation  

Due to clinical need, we only fund applications for projects focusing on the Black African and/or Black Caribbean communities.

A combination of deceased organ and blood donation 

We accept applications jointly covering deceased organ donation and blood donation from all ethnic minority communities, but the blood element of any project must focus on engaging the Black African and/or the Black Caribbean communities and must be carried out in England. 

Living kidney donation

We encourage applications from all minority ethnic communities to raise awareness of, and participation in living kidney donation.

Applicants can apply for one of the following funding bands:

Smaller grants (up to £20,000 per year)

This funding band is open to all eligible organisations and is suitable for a wide range of projects, including community-led activities, campaigns, events, or new and innovative approaches.
Projects may focus on blood donation, living kidney donation, deceased organ donation, or a combination of deceased organ and blood donation.

Larger grants (up to £40,000–£50,000 per year)

This funding band is intended for organisations delivering projects focused on blood donation, living kidney donation, or combined deceased organ and blood donation, where a higher level of investment and delivery is required.

Applicants must demonstrate the capacity to deliver activity at scale and/or achieve significant impact, supported by a strong track record of delivering work of similar size, reach, or complexity.

Organisations applying for this band must also have previous experience of funded work with a government department (ministerial or non-ministerial) or a public body (e.g. NHS Blood and Transplant, NHS England). Applications should clearly evidence the impact achieved through these partnerships, including details of the funding amount and duration.

Additional information

All activity around blood donation must be aimed at the Black African and Black Caribbean communities and must be carried out in England. 

Please also note that your budget outline should be inclusive of unrecoverable VAT.  

Applicants should also make clear in their application if they are applying for money from any other sources e.g. match funding and should think carefully about the areas that they are requesting funding for, as these grants are funded by taxpayers. Any travel costs for people to attend events would need to be standard class travel. 

If applicants intend to use funds to employ a post or contribute towards staffing costs, NHSBT will not undertake any employment liability for these posts. All liability remains with the applying organisation.

All projects will now be funded for a two-year funding period. NHS Blood and Transplant are committed to providing two-years of funding for successful projects, subject to annual budget and funding allocations.

NHS Blood and Transplant will consider an organisations adherence to funding procedure during year one before providing the second year of funding.

Yes, organisations can state their choice of a combined blood and deceased organ proposal, providing activity focused on blood donation engages Black Caribbean and/or Black African communities, and is carried out in England. 

Deceased organ donation activity can be based in England or Wales, and can focus on any Black, Asian, mixed heritage or ethnic minority communities.

All projects for the new funding round will be 24 month projects, running from September 2026 to September 2028.

All applicants must lay out the timeframes of their proposed project in the application form.

The scheme does not fund activity retrospectively, for example if an event falls outside the timescales of the scheme. Activity needs to be completed within the project’s chosen timescale, beginning no earlier than 1 September 2026.

Projects can be given small extensions due to unforeseen circumstances, subject to NHS Blood and Transplant's discretion.

We will update projects regularly on key calendar moments.

As projects start their activity in September, they may want to build activity plans for key moments, such as Organ Donation Week (23-29 September), Sickle Cell Awareness Month (September), Black History Month (October).

These key calendar moments will be immediately after projects have commenced funded work.

NHS Blood and Transplant has a range of existing materials, both physical and digital, to support organisations raising awareness and driving donation in the community. These include:    

• The blood donation YouTube channel 
• The organ donation YouTube channel 
• Leaflets in a range of languages 
• Promotional materials including T-shirts, posters, banners, keyrings, pin badges and more 
• Transplant TV for living kidney donation
• Living kidney donation fact sheets

Organ donation

There is information on our organ donation website about organ donation and faith/ethnicity, and also a number of statistical reports relating to organ donation and transplantation in Black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities  

For example: 

The role of ethnicity in organ donation 

Faith and beliefs in organ donation 

Transplant Activity report – BAME supplementary report

Agroni Research 2019 – attitudes to organ donation in Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities (Powerpoint 2.6MB) 

Information about the change in the law around organ donation in England 

For information about living kidney donation:

Donating your kidney

What is living kidney donation?

Living with one kidney

Practical and cultural considerations

Living kidney donation fact sheets

Blood donation

Our blood donation website contains information around the need for Black African and Black Caribbean donors, including information about Ro donors and sickle cell:

Why more Black donors are needed

The Ro subtype and its role in blood donation 

Information about sickle cell

Engaging celebrities, VIPs and influencers can be a fantastic way of amplifying the vital work that you do, but involving highly influential people with that work also presents a unique set of risks and challenges.

Please ensure you that you read our celebrity and VIP safeguarding guidelines (PDF 151KB).

All applicants need to acknowledge in the relevant section of the application form that they have read, understood and commit to follow these guidelines.

Yes, however, organisations should consider their current funded work, their timelines, any delays and their impact, and their monitoring and evaluation consistency.

These will be considered by the sifting and judging panels.

Blood focused projects should focus on driving awareness and registrations, not mobile blood donation sessions.

In our previous funding rounds, we have trialled some activity to engage communities on stem cell donation with the support of Anthony Nolan.

This year, NHS Blood and Transplant are refocussing our stem cell recruitment efforts, with the support of our regional teams. We are doing this by increasing the number of samples taken on session in our Donor Centres for those wishing to become stem cell donors, after a successful trial to increase our platelet donors.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), agreed upon by the European Parliament and Council in April 2016, and replaced the Data Protection Directive 95/46/etc in Spring 2018.

It is the primary law regulating how companies protect EU citizens' personal data and refers to collection, usage, storage, and destruction of that data.

Applications go through an initial sifting process, with successful applicants moving to the full judging process. Download this document to find out more:

• Project criteria for England and Wales (PDF 163KB)

The judging panel is comprised of key stakeholders in the organ and blood donation communities.

These may include:

• a family/patient with first-hand experience of organ donation
• staff at NHS Blood and Transplant
• clinicians and nurses involved in organ donation and transplantation
• a representative from the Department of Health and Social Care
• a representative from the Welsh Government
• a representative from the National BAME Transplant Alliance

Members of the judging panel must declare conflicts of interest and will not provide scores on applications where this is declared. Any individuals that submit applications cannot be a member of the judging panel.

You will be notified during July 2026, regarding both the sifting and full judging process.

We know that funding applications take time to put together, so we are happy to provide brief feedback on why applications have been unsuccessful.

This will be included in the email you will receive if you have been unsuccessful.

Funding will begin to be released in late August 2026, depending on the procurement process and the completion of documentation by project leads. 

Successful applicants will be expected to sign a Letter of Agreement and issue an invoice prior to the release of funding. 

This year, funds will be released on a staggered basis with part of the funds for year one released in August, and the second payment made in the following months.

NHS Blood and Transplant will consider an organisation's adherence to funding procedure during year one, before providing the second year of funding.

The funded organisation will be required to maintain records of expenditure (such as invoices) and NHS Blood and Transplant reserves the right to have its auditors investigate that the funded activity has/is being done. 

NHS Blood and Transplant reserves the right to ask for and receive funds to be returned in the case that the agreed activity has not been undertaken (partially or at all).

All applications should provide clear information about the number of people they expect to engage through their project and how they will evaluate the impact of this engagement.   

Organisations will be required to provide quarterly monitoring reports, measuring activity against objectives and showing expenditure. They will also be required to meet regularly with their project support officer.

Final evaluation reports will also need to be provided to NHS Blood and Transplant.