The three types of funds

Newcastle Hospitals Charity have a wide range of funds available to support ideas and projects from all parts of the hospitals. This includes a ‘general’ fund that can be used as needed, as well as a number of ‘named’ funds which have been created in response to donations to support different areas within the hospitals. The Charity’s range of funds fall into three different types: 

• Unrestricted funds are donations given to the charity without any specific restrictions imposed by the donor. Newcastle Hospitals Charity can use those funds “for any charitable purpose or purposes relating to the national health service or to general or specific purposes of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.” 

• Restricted funds are donations provided with written evidence of an intention that funds should only be used for a particular purpose, for example in a will, or a letter from a donor.  Newcastle Hospitals Charity are legally bound to spend the donation in this way – it cannot be used for other purposes. An example of a restricted donation might be a contribution towards a new piece of medical equipment or a new building.  

• Designated funds arise when a donor expresses a preference about how they would like to see their donation used but stops short of indicating this in a legally binding way. For example, the donor may want to say ‘thank you’ for the care of a loved one on a particular ward, or to support a particular type of research. Charity Commission guidance states that funds given on this basis are normally to be treated as designated funds. The funds are not legally restricted (and technically can be used for any of our charitable purposes) but our charity committee can formally ‘designate’ them for a particular purpose to make sure they will be used as the donor intended.  

The charity will identify the best funds available to support proposals. Funding will be allocated from one of the charity’s restricted or designated funds where a suitable one exists, or failing that from the Charity’s general fund. Interested parties should not limit their proposals because they believe they can only use certain funds with specific amounts available. Please submit your idea and the charity can advise from there.