Finding funding

There are many small and large sources of funding across the UK.

But first you need to know exactly what you want to do. Many funders will only work with certain projects, like the arts, or young people, and so on.

You also need to know how much money you are asking for. Funders often have restrictions on how much they’ll give.

You’ll need to have a bank account for the group. You won’t always need to be a charity.

Groundwork has some excellent and simple advice about applying for funding.

To find out about specific funding from your local council, in England and Wales, use the government’s funding finder. Click this link and put your postcode in the box. It will take you to the right page on your local council’s website.

Sign up for the free account at My Funding Central. They’ll email you regularly with funding news.

Wiltshire Community Foundation is a group which helps small organisations to find money in Wiltshire - they have a range of grants available to help you.

Grants Online lists new grants available across the UK. The list updates every day.

GrantFinder also lists funding across the UK. That link goes to their community development grants, but also look at other sections. These might be:

• Arts, Culture and Heritage Funding.
• Environmental Grants, Grants for Children.
• Young People and Families.
• …and maybe some of the others, depending on how specialist your project is.

Charity Excellence has a free Funder Finding Database.

Here is the National Lottery Community Fund.

These supermarkets are worth looking at:

Tesco Community Grants - currently, their priority projects include support to young people.

Morrisons Foundation – offers grants for charities, and their match funding supports registered charities that Morrisons colleagues fundraise for.

Sainsburys – they make arrangements at an individual store level, so contact your local store for more information.

Lidl – click to find out about the voucher donation fund.

Co-op – New causes are chosen annually and will be selected each spring. To be accepted, you must have a project in mind that will benefit your local community.

If you prefer to look at a book, you can use The Directory of Grant Making Trusts. It’s published every year by The Directory of Social Change, and it’ll usually be in your local library.

It’s unlikely you’ll be looking for investment rather than a grant. But if you do want to borrow money, look at https://locality.org.uk/services-tools/funding/

You might do some fundraising activities. Look at our separate document about running fundraising events.

NCVO has a free spreadsheet tool to help you plan your budget. This can be useful when you’re applying for grants!