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Staples Trust

The Staples Trust logo
  • About the Trust
  • Grantmaking process
  • Frankopan Fund

About the Trust

Staples Trust was founded by Jessica Sainsbury in 1992.  From the beginning, Jessica has been proactive in helping organisations at a critically early stage in development and supported projects in areas such as environment, gender, indigenous peoples and inequality. The Trust is named after Mary Ann Staples, wife of John James Sainsbury. They both founded the first Sainsbury’s store on London’s Drury Lane in 1869.

Maasai people along with Pitt Rivers Museum staff, standing in front of display cabinets
Staples Trust has supported the Pitt Rivers Museum’s Living Cultures Programme, which enables the Museum to work with Maasai representatives from Kenya and Tanzania to research Maasai objects. © Pitt Rivers Museum

What we fund

Staples supports projects in the following areas: Environment, Gender, Indigenous Peoples, and Inequality. The Trust also supports a small number of projects which fall outside these areas. Under the Frankopan Fund, it supports a grants programme for Croatian students who are pursuing postgraduate courses in the UK and internationally. Occasionally, the Trust also responds to international emergency appeals. 


We don’t fund

Applications for funding are generally invited by the Trustees or initiated at their request. Unsolicited applications are unlikely to be successful. The Trustees prefer to support projects which can be successfully replicated or become self-sustaining. Aside from awards made under the Frankopan Fund, grants are not normally made to individuals.

Community filmmakers and elders from Tanzania, South Africa and Kenya make a documentary under some acacia trees
Pan African Living Cultures Alliance (PALCA) gathering of community filmmakers and elders from Tanzania, South Africa and Kenya representing Maasai, Ogiek, Sengwer, El Molo, Hadzabe, Parakuyo, Amapondo and Nama communities, held at the foot of Ol Donyo Lenga, Holy Mountain of the Maasai in February 2024. The gathering was funded by The Staples Trust. © InsightShare

Grantmaking process

Aside from the Frankopan Fund, applications for funding are generally invited by the Trustees or initiated at their request. 


Frankopan Fund

You can find out more about the Frankopan Fund below:

Frankopan Fund

Staff

  • Elaine Ponte – Trust Executive

Contact us

For general queries: 020 7410 0330 

Our Annual Reports are available on the Charity Commission website.

We publish open grants data. To find out more about what we fund, please visit 360Giving.


360Giving grants data

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