GC Gibson Charitable Trust

The Future

I am sorry for confusion but we are no longer operating an online submission for grants. Instead we are using the networks of our trustees and also using the database of 100s of previous applicants to find charities to whom we are not already donating. There is no point contacting us unless we have already given you money. Even then you might not get a response.

This change in approach is because AI has ruined the process. It is too easy to find us and write a submission and we had far too many applicants last year.

News from August 2025

2025 applications closed

We have closed our application process a bit early after being overwhelmed by the sheer number of applications. We have had over 600 applications. You individual chance of success is negligible. We will now sift through them and you will only hear from us if you are successful. I am afraid AI has made it too easy to find us and we will have to look again at how we do this. Keep an eye on our News Posts.

News from July 2025

2025

Today we launch our online application for a capital grant. We will give away up to £50,000 in grants of £5,000. You may apply for less but applications for more will be rejected.

News from August 2024

2024 Applications

I am so sorry but we completely failed to open on 1 August and I am sorry to anyone who benchmarked this date. We are now open and will be until the 30 September this year. There is no change to the criteria we will use.

Martin

News from September 2023

2023 Applications Closed

Thank you to those who have applied. We have had over 250 applicants for our 10 grants. I have not yet looked at all of them but many are of good quality. It will be a bit of a lottery. We will write to you first if you are unsuccessful, by the 15th October. We will then consider a shorter list of about 40 and hope to have the final choice by mid November. You cannot influence our choice.

News from August 2023

2023 Applications open

We have opened our application process. Criteria the same as last year. Please check you qualify.

Good luck

News from September 2022

Application closed

We are closing the application process today – a bit earlier than indicated but I hope no one has thought by leaving it to the last moment they might have more success. I am away for a few days and cannot monitor the process to delete the enormous amount of spam we receive. We now review the many 100s of genuine applications and will write to those who do not get onto the short list around the middle of October. Those on the short list will be informed a bit later. Please do not chase and there is no appeals process. Good luck.

News from August 2022

We are a week later in launching this application process for 2022. However we are going to keep it open until the 30th September so please take time to get you application as good as you can. There is no advantage in being early as we have developed a review process to eliminate any early mover advantage. For this year the we want to repeat the criteria we set out in the How to Apply as this works for us and for you. Good luck. The trustees.

News from September 2021

2021 Online Applications

The 2021 Online submission process is now closed. We have had over 400 applicants and will award around 12 grants. We will not be in touch for sometime and we will provide no reason for rejecting any application. Please do not contact us.

News from July 2021

2021 online application process opens

From today our 2021 online application process has opened. Good luck if you apply.

Who we are

The GC Gibson Charitable trust was established in 1968 by George Gibson by a grant of shares in his shipping business, based in Cardiff, called Atlantic Shipping. The fund today is worth £16 million and invests in quoted equities aiming to grow its capital and yet provide a income which is paid out annually in small grants to around 200 charities. Support is mainly for small and medium sized charities operating in the UK. The trustees are the grandchildren of George. All engage closely with charity. Funding is often provided for many years and the trustees put no restrictions on expenditure. Each year a few appeals are supported and new charities introduced.

Who we help

The GC Gibson Charity offers grants of between £1,000 and £10,000 to a wide range of charities. The trustees are all highly involved in various philanthropic activities and priority for support is given to charities that the trustees have previously worked with. However, the trust adds a few new charities each year.

For these new applications, we now focus on a particular theme for projects and we are able to change this from year to year. We help a diverse range of charities and our choice may be seen as a bit quirky and random but we support what appeals to the trustees using a structured process. To see what our current focus is, and to begin the application process, please see the How to apply section below.

Our History

George C Gibson was the nephew of the Welsh ship owner William James Tatem (1868–1942). Tatem was born at Appledore, North Devon, ran away to sea, suffered shipwreck and yellow fever, before settling down in Cardiff in 1886 as a clerk with the tramp steamer owners Anning Bros. By 1897 he had sufficient funds to set up in business on his own and ordered the tramp steamer Lady Lewis in the name of the Lady Lewis Steamship Co. Ltd. Tatem’s business prospered; by 1900 he had 6 steamers and in 1903 there were 13 ships in his fleet. He was killed in a bombing raid on Cardiff Docks during the second world war in 1942 and George Gibson took over the business. It still exists today but is no longer in shipping!

How to apply

This process is no longer being used. We will invite no more submissions.

This online process has only been a small part of our charitable giving.

Contact

You can contact us by email only on gcgibsoncharity@gmail.com We will only very rarely respond to emails. WE DO NOT RESPOND TO OR ACKNOWLEDGE LETTERS received by post or phone calls – Sorry!

Apologies for our rather aggressive avoidance of contact. We are just family trustees trying to help as many charities as possible.

Complete the form below keeping the descriptions short and simple.

N.B. Applications are now closed.
They will reopen on 1 August 2027

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