The fourteen questions we are most often asked.

Households resident in the parishes of Bardney, Southrey, Tupholme, or Bucknall — for the Hardship Fund, the Quiet Door, and the Schools & Pupils Grants — and widows of the parish of Southrey for the pension fund. Our area of benefit is fixed by our 1964 scheme of management.

By a single side of A4 addressed to The Trustees, Kitchings General Charity, The Old Vestry, Church Lane, Bardney LN3 5UF — by post, by email to [email protected], or by ringing one of the trustees. We have no application form.

Within five working days for an acknowledgement. Within ten working days for a Hardship Fund decision. Within seventy-two hours for Quiet Door emergency cases. The Southrey widows' pension cheques arrive on the second Friday of February, May, August, and November.

Hardship grants typically run from £40 to £400, with the median sitting around £186 in 2025. The Southrey widows' pension is £62.50 a quarter (£250 a year). Individual pupil grants are typically £25 to £150. Quiet Door grants are capped at £400 per case.

We write to you personally, by hand, to say why and to suggest where else you might be able to apply. We do not use templates. We do not write 'unsuccessful'. Where the Lincolnshire Community Foundation or another local fund is a better fit, we will say so.

The administrative cost of operating the scheme would, at our small scale, exceed the income we would recoup. The trustees review this position annually. If you would normally claim Gift Aid on a charitable gift, please be aware that you cannot at present claim it on a gift to us. We are sorry.

From the original endowment (a glebe rent and an investment fund); from the four annual church collections in the parishes; from the two Witham Walks each year; from a small number of regular donors; and from the occasional gift or bequest. The annual reports break this down in detail.

No. The trustees serve without payment and receive no expenses other than the tea at the meetings and the postage on the official correspondence. They contribute approximately 410 hours a year between them.

No. The Kitchings General Charity has no paid staff. Our annual report and accounts have always shown zero in the salary line. All administrative work is done by the trustees, with help from a small list of volunteers.

Yes. A short note for solicitors is available on our resources page with our standard wording, including the registered charity number and the registered office. Many of the trust's longest-serving donors have given in this way. We are most grateful for any consideration.

We have five small open roles, listed on our volunteer page. We do not need many volunteers, and we are honest about that. The roles we have are quietly important to the work and we look for people willing to stay for a year or two.

We have eight named partnerships, listed on our partnerships page, with the local parish council, the village churches, the two primary schools, the Lincolnshire Community Foundation, and a few others. We do not run consortium bids.

Almost certainly not. Our area of benefit is fixed by the scheme of management as the four named parishes. The 1937 addition of Tupholme is the only change in a hundred and sixty years. The trustees take this constraint seriously and have politely declined offers that would have taken us beyond it.

Write to the chair in the first instance — Geoffrey Pacey, at the registered office, or by email to [email protected] with the subject line 'Complaint'. If you remain dissatisfied, you may complain to the Charity Commission through their online complaints form, or to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk for data-protection matters.