Unlocking the right funders for your work

With over 20,000 trusts and foundations active in the UK alone, the grant-making landscape offers significant opportunities for charities of every size. Yet, finding the right funders for your specific projects and crafting applications that resonate with their priorities can be a time-consuming process that often distracts your team from delivering frontline impact.

Effective trusts and foundations fundraising is about more than sending out applications. It involves careful research to match your work with funders whose interests align with your mission, building relationships with grant-makers over time and writing applications that tell a clear, compelling story of need, approach and impact.

Key Benefits

  • Accessing a broad income stream that supports core costs, projects and capital appeals
  • Securing multi-year grants that bring planning stability and reduce fundraising pressure
  • Building long-term relationships with funders who can become advocates for your work
  • Diversifying income to reduce reliance on individual donors or unpredictable income sources

Building a strong trusts and foundations pipeline

At Gifted, we help to build trusts and foundations fundraising programmes that deliver sustainable grant funding for charities, or vital funding for major campaigns. This starts with research to identify the funders whose priorities, geographic focus and grant size match your projects. We then help you develop a pipeline that prioritises applications based on fit, deadline and expected return, so your team focuses its time where it will have the most impact.

Our team has extensive experience in preparing and writing successful applications for clients across all sectors, having helped to raise £10m+ in grants to date. We help shape the case for support, draft applications that meet each funder's criteria and provide guidance on reporting and stewardship once funding is secured. As experienced trusts and foundations fundraising consultants, we can support you to build a programme from scratch or strengthen an existing one. If you'd like to find out more, get in touch.

Further information

Services list

FAQs

What is trusts and foundations fundraising?

Trusts and foundations fundraising is the process of securing grant income from charitable trusts, foundations and grant-making bodies. It involves research to identify suitable funders, application writing tailored to each funder's priorities and ongoing reporting and stewardship to maintain long-term relationships.

How do charities find the right grant giving organisations to apply to?

Charities find the right trusts and foundations by using funder research databases or a directory of grant making trusts, reviewing 360Giving and Charity Commission data, mapping each prospect against the charity's projects, geographic focus and beneficiary group, and assessing fit before investing time in an application. A targeted approach to research delivers far better results than blanket applications.

What makes a successful grant application?

A successful grant application clearly demonstrates need, sets out a well-evidenced approach, shows credible impact and matches the funder's specific priorities and reporting expectations. Strong applications also evidence the charity's track record, governance and ability to deliver, giving funders confidence in their investment.

How long does it take to receive a grant?

The time from application to receipt of a grant varies from a few weeks to over a year depending on the funder. Smaller family foundations often respond within three months, while larger grant-makers such as the National Lottery Heritage Fund or the National Lottery Community Fund may take six to twelve months for full decisions.

What are the benefits of working with trusts and foundations fundraising consultants?

Gifted Philanthropy consultants take a tailored approach to support charities with building or strengthening their trusts and foundations fundraising programmes. With wide experience across multiple sectors and access to specialist funder research tools, we help charities identify the right prospects, prioritise applications and secure sustainable grant income.