PADDLE TRUST - Changing the Landscape for Paddlers
Formerly known as the Canoe Foundation they rebranded in 2025 to Paddle Trust to better reflect the range of people and projects they support.
Through the Trust, they support the Clear Access Clear Waters campaign to improve sustainable places to paddle on UK waterways and coastline. The CACW campaign is a campaign for fair, shared, sustainable open access on waterways.
The projects supported include funding:
- Launch and landing platforms, steps or ramps
- Improvements to pathways and accessible routes to the water’s edge
- Signage and information that promotes positive behaviour (Countryside Code, “Check, Clean, Dry”, take your litter home etc)
- Designated or additional parking for water users
- Works to address erosion and create more sustainable access points
- Projects that actively engage water users in helping protect/enhance the waterway environment
- Projects that can benefit more than one user group
- Projects that benefit all paddlers, rather than private member facilities
The Paddle Trust is a UK wide foundation. They raise money for and directly fund projects across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
They rely on donations to get the projects they support off the ground. Every little helps. Whether you are able to give a one off donation, a regular direct debit amount or leave a legacy in your Will, they are grateful for every donation. It all helps to get these important projects off the ground and ensure paddling in our beautiful outdoors is something that everyone can enjoy.
Click the link to read about some of the projects funded over the last few years.
The Paddle Trust looks for projects across the whole of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) that will:
- Increase or enhance existing public access points to water for all forms of paddlesport
- Create launching and landing sites, to and alongside water, for all sectors of the community and all abilities, that are designed to be durable and use sustainable materials when applicable
- Protect and enhance the natural blue spaces we enjoy such as rivers or coastline
- Are “ready to go”. Planning permission must have been researched and granted or agreed in principle, and quotes for the work obtained. We also need to see support from relevant local groups or partners (for example a letter of support from them), and evidence that the group has tried to get funding from other organisations or matched funding in place