Fundraising Resources

Fundraising information

Payroll giving is covered on the Tax Reclaim Services page.

General

• Directory of Social Change has various well-known funding guides and other resources online and in print. Specific info sites governmentfunding.org.uk, companygiving, grants for individuals, trustfunding.
• Fundraising UK News and other material, online since 1994.
• The Fundraiser magazine, first published in 2011 by Wilmington Publishing and Information, has been put online (from 2014) with free access.
• Giving Tuesday Promoting first Tuesday in December as a day of giving (arrived in UK in 2014).
• Institute of Fundraising Various online material in its resources section such as guides, reports, info on particular topics.
• Let’s Get Fundraising Ideas from a social enterprise with a background in schools/PTA fundraising.
• New Philanthropy Capital seeks to develop and encourage more effective philanthropy, and has built up a good range of publications and events.
• NCVO’s funding resources section includes sustainable funding info.
• Remember a Charity – legacy promotion.
• Rogare – Fundraising think tank at Plymouth University. Link to Critical Fundraising blog.
• SOFII – Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration.
• Philanthropy Impact Some useful resources, and a magazine.
• City Philanthropy.
• The Philanthropy Workshop “the leader in ongoing strategic philanthropy education and networking”.
• Advocacy Funding Advice on funding and bid writing specifically for advocacy organisations.

Consultant sites with resources

• Funding Eye offers a number of free resources “that are designed to help you navigate the world of fundraising”.
• Get Grants has a blog (featuring grant giving trusts) and newsletter.

See Professional Bodies page for further support networks. Also see Magazines page.

Locating sources of grants etc.

Also see: Directory of Social Change above. There are a number of Twitter feeds (at autumn 2014) putting out updates on grants and other income opportunities, too.

• EU Money Service publishes a directory of European grants and has a grants update service.
• Funding Central is managed by NCVO. It covers a wide variety of grants, contracts and loans that are available particularly from official sources, plus sections on advice, ‘find a partner’ etc.
• Funding Information “the fundraising information service exclusively dedicated to the needs of voluntary organisations, charities, local authorities, and the agencies and information services who support them throughout the UK.” Annual subscription from £300.
• Grants Net For business as well as charities. Was pending relaunch autumn 2014, still nothing summer 2017.
• Grants Online Information on calls for proposals from the European Union, government and National Lottery grants etc. Free trial, annual sub from £75.
• Idox has a suite of media platforms which “offer access to thousands of funding opportunities for businesses, community groups and students across the UK”. See Grantfinder database. They also run Open4Funding,  Open4Community to allow councils to put funding search facilities for charity and community groups on their web sites.

Regional

• FINE Funding info for the North East.
• South Yorkshire Funding Advice Bureau A variety of useful information sheets, plus more for local organisations.

Funders with useful websites

• Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF) gives details of websites for member organisations.
• UK Community Foundations, the umbrella body for the 48 community foundations across the UK –  local ‘endowment funds’ made by pooling donations that will generate ongoing income, for local grant-making. Community Foundation for Northern Ireland
• Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust Makes grants in five sectors: arts & heritage, education, environment, social & economic research, social welfare.
• Lloyds TSB Foundations Application form can be downloaded from the website, which also has application guidelines. Scotland’s version is (from Aug. 2017) Corra Foundation; Halifax Foundation NI.
• Impact Funding Partners (was Voluntary Action Fund), an independent grant making trust, gives grants to, and work with, local voluntary organisations in Scotland.

Governmental/agency

• As mentioned above: Government Funding, managed by Directory of Social Change, and Funding Central,  managed by NCVO with government support.
• Welsh Assembly Government grants info.
• Government Funding Database for Northern Ireland governmental grants.
• European Social Fund.

National Lottery related

• National Lottery Community Fund (was Big Lottery Fund) can be a good funding source for certain groups – main aim is “to help meet the needs of those at greatest disadvantage in society and to improve the quality of life in the community”.
• Lottery Good Causes funding info section.
• Other lottery money sites:
  • Arts Council of England.
  • Try UK Sport.
  • LotteryGoodCauses is an umbrella site for all the lottery funded grant schemes.

Online Grants

Further developments/info on moves towards ‘electronic grantmaking’ awaited. But check CyberGrants.Com – American of course.

Fundraising on the web

Crowdfunding is a label sometimes attached to online sourcing of fundraising by individuals. See Online Income Services for Platforms/giving portals, Online Tools and Services. Our Taking Action Personally page may also give some initiatives you can benefit from or be inspired by.

Also see Membership Systems, as increasingly fundraising management processes are integrated into a wider CRM (customer relationship management) function.

Note that some services are promoted as “free” but check what this means, as the phrase can ignore administration charges or cuts from Gift Aid, for example.

Mailing lists

• MarketingFile Provides access to mailing lists via the web. You make your own selections and pay per item (no minimum quantities). While they see this as useful to smaller charities, there aren’t any tailored charity lists and you would need to have a clear idea of your target audience. Definitely worth a look if you are thinking of doing a cold-mailing appeal to generate new donors.
• Avongate Find relevant postal and email lists for direct mail campaigns.

Shop and Donate

Sites generating commission/donations based on consumer purchases from various online retailers. Most of these charge charities/organisations to appear, and/or take a cut of each transaction generated. Some sites don’t last long, but others are now reasonably established. Note: We don’t update this list very often.

• Easy Fundraising Over 55,000 causes, 2,700 retailers, at Sep. 2014.
• The Giving Machine. Has a shopping toolbar/reminder system. Over 6,600 schools & charities at Sep. 2014.
• Give or Take Chance to donate “cashback” earnings.
• Give as you Live Over 3,500 stores, give to a charity of the month or your own choice.
• GoRaise.
• Vouchers4charity. Gift Vouchers/Greetings Cards can be bought online, with 3% of voucher value donated to charity.
• eBay.com eBay for Charity section – auctioning items for charity benefit.

Charity retail

• Barnardos Catalogue may be online.
• Oxfam Online shop.

• Charity Gifts UK
• Combined Charities Christmas Shops

Affiliate schemes, banner ads

These involve linking into existing schemes, such as the popular online bookseller Amazon’s facility for site visitors to link through from appropriate content, e.g. a book review, with a commission from connected sales coming back to you. You can get paid for carrying banner ads on your site, and some commercial sites now carry charity banners, with the named charity getting a small amount every time someone clicks on the ad (presumably the hosting site gets some info on its visitors this way).

Tab for a Cause web app turns any newly opened tab on a Chrome or Firefox web browser into a “charity collecting hub”, raising money from the banner advertisements which populate the new page. Purely American at Sep. 2014, but may expand.

 

Tags: funding