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How to get funding for a charity - 20 ways to find new charity funding sources and other income streams for charities, including corporate funding opportunities and charity funders. Find new funding sources for charities using tips the professionals use, plus some of my own.
Find corporate funding for charities using the Help Finder directory search for Donations - Funding to search for new corporate funding opportunities for charities.
Use our 100+ downloadable charity funder lists, including charity funders for core costs, corporate foundations, buildings & equipment, disability, education, health, IT and tech, individuals & families, social enterprises, social welfare, start-ups, older people, small charities, unregistered charities, and young people. Simply download the one you want from the income questionnaire, job done. We now also have funding lists for English Counties.
If you're looking for tech grants, there is funding for that, but always think more broadly too. If you're a young people's charity, there are lots of funders who may well be interested but also think about what you will achieve. For example, you may be improving mental health or learning and there are sources of grant funding for those too.
And there are also sources of grant funding for general charitable purposes, who don't have specific requirements on the type of funding. You can search for these using 'General Funding' in Funding Finder, or download the funder research list for General Charitable Purposes, from the income questionnaire. It has 3000 general funders.
Unlike most other charity grant directories, the free Funding Finder has been designed to be very quick and simple to use and has a search category specifically to find charity funding opportunities for Small Charities & Community Groups. It's updated weekly, but also has links to 100s of other free funding databases and online funder lists, giving you click through to a huge range of grant funding; everything is free. Register Now to get started.
Download the annual accounts of sister charities, from the Charity Commission website, and look to see, which charity funders have funded them, as these are funders who are already engaged with your kind of work.
If you're busy, here's my online list of new UK charitable grant funders. Or find far more funding opportunities by downloading the full list of new charity funders from the income questionnaire, or do it yourself by going to the Charity Commission website and using the advanced search function. Select ‘How the charity operates’ from the drop down menu and then click on ‘Grants to individuals’ or ‘Grants to Charities’. For newly registered trusts and foundations, use the registration date to find those that have been recently registered. And don’t forget that OSCR (Scotland) and CCNI (Northern Ireland) have register search tools too. Alternatively, Charity Excellence has funder research lists, including newly registered trusts in each of the UK countries, in the income questionnaire, that have already been downloaded and formatted for you.
Or ask Mr Google to help you find charity funding sources online. This can be time consuming, but could be a great role for a home working volunteer, or set up a Google Alert and have new funding opportunities sent to you each day. You can also use the Charity Excellence Data Finder to search, explore and download fundraising and donations data.
No, I'm not joking. Google give registered charities a £90,000 Google Ads grant you can use to get funding for your charity. That's the same grant Cancer Research UK get, it's virtually guaranteed (as long as you're eligible) and you get a another £90,000 every year. Use it to secure donations, or of you prefer, find volunteers and campaign. Here's all you need to know and, if it all feels a bit techie, get someone to do it for your.
There are a whole range of platforms that match charities to potential supporters, businesses and donors. The CEF has links to 100+ fundraising platforms, including a number that can match you to potential charity funders, as well as advice on choosing the right one for your charity.
Doing more of what you’re good at makes sense, but so does finding new funding opportunities for your charity and it also helps to diversify your income. Each fundraising technique has its own benefits, albeit it almost always takes time and at least some investment. There are lots of options to choose from. The CEF has an entire fundraising strategy toolkit in the Maximising Income questionnaire, but you can find some guidance I’ve published here.
Are you making maximum use of these opportunities to create new sources of funding? Options include leasing land or property, hosting events, room hire or hot desking, or using your expertise to deliver training, or other paid for services to create new income streams for your charity. If it’s primary purpose trading (part of your charitable objectives) or below the threshold, there’s no corporation tax liability. If there is, create a trading company.
Try the Good Finance online social investment tool or Big Society Capital. Here are 13 things you ought to know, before considering social investment. Here’s a Social Impact Bond toolkit and another to find investors, funds and advisers. For peer learning, mentoring and resources, try this.
Your existing funders already believe in your charity and what you do, so might they be able to give more, more often, or in new ways?
Check with your trustees, high level supporters and anyone else relevant, to see if any of them have a relationship with trusts, companies, or people with money, networks, influence or status who may be willing to help you.
Do a 'proper job', by copying the names of the key people in your target trusts, companies and other funders, and paste them into a list to circulate. You might even create a fundraising/development committee to actively grow and develop your networks and influence, to find new funders. There are ready made Terms of Reference for such a committee, in the CEF online toolkit.
Our volunteers and one-off or small amount donors have already shown they are engaged with your work. Some of these will almost certainly have useful contacts/networks, or be interested in becoming a regular donor, or potentially have the capacity to donate more. In your communications, are you making them aware of how they could do more, if they wish to? And are there any you might specifically wish to cultivate?
Your existing funders love what your charity is doing and an endorsement from them carries real weight. Consider if some of them may be prepared to recommend you to their contacts who may themselves be interested in your work.
Check your CRM or fundraising files, to identify who supported you in the past. These may be a long-time ago, but they liked you enough to fund you and there may still be someone around who has/had a relationship with them.
Check your old annual statutory accounts, in which you thanked your charity funders. They were sufficiently engaged to fund you, so perhaps it's time to rekindle that relationship? Note: this is possibly the only occasion in which getting back together with your ex really does make sense.
Think about trying new ways to find and engage funders to source new funding streams for your charity.
How do I get face-to-face meetings and engage potential funders more? Invite them to your events. When event planning, think about whom you could invite from any of your networks or activity above, with a view to engaging them more and finding out how they might be interested in helping.
When you know who’s coming, identify those you wish to engage, what you might realistically achieve from the event (usually not an ask!) and whom amongst your team should seek them out and talk to them.
If you don’t have events, or getting potential funders to come along is difficult, go to them. Think about local business groups, company events, or other activities where the people you meet do to, then send your CEO, chair or someone else to these. If you can get a speaking slot (Rotary, Lions, community group, whatever), better still.
To find new funding opportunities, sign up for bulletins and newsletters. The CEF Help area includes a range of these and new funders are included in the CEF Newsletter each week. You can also join charity social media groups - the CEF has a list of over 30 in the communications questionnaire. You'll learn just by following the conversations and group members are usually only too willing to help others.
There are more than 10,000 charitable trusts and foundations in the UK, distributing more than £2bn each year, so there is merit in considering engaging a professional to help you find the most suitable. The CEF runs a fundraising freelancer register, as a charitable activity, that is both free to join and use. Contact me at charityexcellence@gmail.com if you wish to know more.
There isn't enough funding and there isn't going to be, so we need to change our mindset and think about other ways in which we can generate new charity funding streams.
Each year, we fail to claim £600m in Gift Aid. That's a huge missed funding opportunity for charities. There are several types and it might appear a bit complicated, so here’s everything you need to know and how to do it.
Ever heard of Employment Allowance, did you know that there are more than a dozen VAT reliefs alone or that you can claim back tax relief, up to 4 years retrospectively? These are all often missed opportunities to grow your income streams and get more funding. The CEF helps you find out what you're not claiming, but should be, and then links you to the resources you need; run 'Tax Reliefs' in the query system. If you haven’t joined us yet, here’s everything you need to know to make sure you’re getting yours.
The Charity Excellence mantra! Our free Help Finder directory has 1,800+ providers and 28 search categories and can find almost anything for free, from chocolate to period products and consultancy to software and hardware.
Managing the limited resources we have better, is more controllable, often quicker, gives funders greater value for money and delivers increased impact for beneficiaries. Moreover, this is something we're not all very good at, so there can be real opportunities. You know the story by now – the system does it all for you but, if you really don’t want to join our community, use the How To Save Money, Without Cost Cutting toolkit.
A registered charity ourselves, the CEF works for any non profit, not just charities.
Plus, 100+downloadable funder lists, 40+ policies, 8 online health checks and the huge resource base.
Quick, simple and very effective.
Find Funding, Free Help & Resources - Everything Is Free.
To access help and resources on anything to do with running a charity, including funding, click the AI Bunny icon in the bottom right of your screen and ask it short questions, including key words. Register, then login and the in-system AI Bunny is able to write funding bids and download 60+ charity policy templates as well.
