Watch our Video
Accessing support for charities can be hugely challenging. Charities and other non profits are usually too small to have all the expertise they need and too poor to be able to pay for support but the sector has huge collective expertise. Help Finder enables you to search 100s and 100s of infrastructure charities, groups and networks to find people who share your values and are willing to help and provide the support your charity needs, often for free. Better still, the more of us who join these groups and networks, the bigger, stronger and more effective they become. Scroll to the bottom for why that's really important for you and all of us.
UK Wide Support. There is support UK wide and also in each UK nation for a wide range of groups, causes and activities. That includes niche areas from Jewish Volunteering and Welsh Museums, to Rainforests, Street Games and Composting.
Local Support.
Other Support Groups and Networks. There are also a large number of other support groups and networks.
Social Media. There are also a whole range of charity social media groups you can join to find and give support. Do we have a resource for that? Of course we do, click here.
Wider Support. If you're looking for support, rather than connecting with charity support groups and networks, use the other search categories. For example, Fundraising Support, Accounting & Finance, etc. This will bring up anyone who is willing to help, including companies and public sector bodies. For example, Fundraising Support will generate a mix of infrastructure charities that provide funding support and companies whose staff organise fundraising activities on behalf of charities.
Help Finder has 230 records in its Support Bodies & Regulators category. However, this connects to our online web page of another 180 (we haven't had time to upload them yet) plus also local online lists of support and hubs, such as the Scottish TSI network, giving you access to an entire UK network of help and services for non profits. We think we probably now connect you to around 500 but there are probably up to 700, so we still have more work to do. The system also links you to our list of 60+ charity social media groups, which are a great source of help and support, and there's also a list of federated charities too. With our very limited capacity, we think it'll take another year to upload the remaining ones from our initial 180 on the web page and track down most of the ones we haven't found yet.
The well known larger national ones all tend to charge membership fees as do some that offer substantial services but the vast majority are free or have very low membership fees. For services such as DBS checking and room hire, usually you do, but you are buying from people who share your values, often at low cost and every 1£ you spend will help to close the funding gap just a tiny bit more.
Use the Support Bodies & Regulators search in the Category pull down menu to find help for your charity. Search using UK Wide, your UK country and, if applicable, a major city and/or English County.
To find specific support, use the Key Word search box. Try searching using relevant words for the Groups, Causes and Functions you wish to connect with. To find more, try using variations. For example, climate change and environmental.
Front line charities often have no voice in the wider sector or Government, but whilst 95% of us may be very small, there are nearly 0.5 million UK non profits. Growing a UK wide network of support needs no additional work, benefits everyone and costs absolutely nothing, creating a virtuous cycle of the more of us who join, the bigger, stronger and more effective the support becomes. Better still, we all have a real voice in those areas that matter most to us.
If like me, you're into boring management stuff, that's what's known as a distributed leadership network, which supports collaborative decision-making, shared accountability, and inclusive leadership. It works really well for cause driven organisations like us, where top down hierarchies can feel misaligned with our values, such as equity and participation. It also fosters innovation through collective intelligence and shared ownership, and we need a lot more of that too.
You may know it as helping each other. Whatever you call it, it works. Join in and help to make it happen for everyone.
If you are an infrastructure charity/non profit, network, or membership body and you wish to be added to Help Finder, just e mail me (ian@charityexcellence.co.uk) 75 words detailing the services you provide, who for, how many members you have and any charges/fees.
If you are a non profit that provides or sells goods or services to other non profits, we'd be more than happy to promote you. Send us details as above. If you send us an image, we'll use it on our website, give you a shout out in our newsletter and on social. You must have consent to use the image. For safety reasons, do not send high quality/resolution imagery and do not include personal or geolocation data in the meta data. We want you to be safe.
All of our services are free because those who most need our help and online reach are often the least able to afford to pay. Not least the small charities and marginalised groups we prioritise in delivering support.
A registered charity ourselves, the CEF works for any non profit, not just charities.
Plus, 60+ policies, 8 online health checks and the huge resource base.
Quick, simple and very effective.
Find Funding, Free Help & Resources - Everything Is Free.
We do our best to check charities and companies on Help Finder but we area tiny charity and are not able to carry out proper due diligence. When buying from or using any we upload, you must carry out all necessary checks yourselves and, in using our systems, you accept full responsibility for doing so and that we have no liability whatsoever for any loss or other detriment arising from you doing so. Here is our guide to due diligence.
