Our charities
Chatsworth has been handed down 16 generations of the Cavendish family. It is a family home, a working farm and a living landscape.
Chatsworth House and many of its contents, the gardens and 737 hectares (1,822 acres) of the surrounding landscape are leased for a nominal sum to a registered charity, the Chatsworth House Trust, established in 1981 (Charity No. 511149). The 12th Duke and Duchess pay rent to the charity to live at Chatsworth and work with the charity and others to welcome Chatsworth’s visitors.
Every penny of visitor admission income goes directly to the Chatsworth House Trust, which is dedicated to the long-term preservation of Chatsworth House, the collections, garden, woodlands and park for the long-term benefit of the public.
The Duke of Devonshire’ Charitable Trust (DDCT), charity no. 213519, is a grant-making family charity providing assistance to charitable causes in Derbyshire, and close to Bolton Abbey in North Yorkshire, at Eastbourne in Sussex and at Lismore in Ireland as well as occasionally further afield in the UK.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic the DDCT, alongside community partners and Devonshire Group colleagues, identified local charities in urgent need of financial assistance to deal with the immediate effects of the pandemic, helping local food banks, domestic abuse support and children’s services to keep operating. The DDCT also assisted 12 schools spread between North East Derbyshire, North Yorkshire and Co. Waterford, Ireland who were in need of funding to purchase laptops and other home schooling materials to enable disadvantaged children to continue to access their education.
In addition to making unsolicited grants, the DDCT continues to award grants to a variety of charity applicants including Blythe House Hospicecare, Care for the Carers, Harrogate District Hospice, Relate Chesterfield and North Derbyshire, Samaritans of Derby and District, YMCA Derbyshire, Addingham Youth Council, the Army Benevolent Fund, Dales and Bowland Community Interest Company, the Florence Nightingale Foundation, Mentell High Peak and Dales, Riding for Smiles, School-Home Support, the Volunteers Network CIC Eastbourne and nearly 40 other charities in the last 12 months.
To apply to the Duke of Devonshire’s Charitable Trust, please read the guidelines and complete the application form through the link below.
