Other funders
If you don’t meet all the criteria in our eligibility checklist, you might find useful information and advice from some of these organisations:
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If you are not a properly constituted voluntary or community organisation – or if your constitution does not allow you to take on loans:
Your local Council for Voluntary Service (CVS) can give you advice on drawing up or amending constitutions. You will find a complete contact list of local CVS on the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA) website www.navca.org.uk.
The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) runs The Sustainable Funding Project. NCVO’s Sustainable Funding Project is a first-stop shop encouraging and enabling voluntary and community organisations explore a full range of funding options to develop a sustainable funding mix.
NCVO’s Sustainable Funding Project promotes thorough organisational planning, proactive grant diversification, and income generation as three key and interlocking means of increasing financial stability. Within this holistic approach, the project has a particular interest in income generation. The website at www.ncvo-sfp.org.uk contains introductory and signposting information on funding from a diverse range of funding sources. You can also subscribe to their free newsletter from their website or by calling the NCVO Helpdesk on 0800 2798 798.
The NCVO HelpDesk is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm
The wider NCVO website also contains a wealth of material, covering most aspects of working in the voluntary sector www.ncvo-vol.org.uk.
If you are an individual
Unltd exists to support people who have the ideas and commitment to make a really positive difference in their communities. They provide information about funding and support networks as well as other useful guidance. Unltd’s website is at www.unltd.org.uk
If your scheme is not aimed at improving public service delivery in our five public service delivery areas, or is not likely to lead to a contract or other purchase agreement with public agency (for example a local authority or primary care trust):
You may need to look for other sources of funding. Your local CVS will advise you about the most appropriate and likely sources of funding for your project.
Other sources of information or funding
Lottery funding
www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk contains information about the funding programmes run by each of the Lottery distributors including the Awards for All small grants programme and will link you to their websites.
Loan funding
Sometimes, with applicants’ permission, we pass applications on to one of our two partner banks. Alternatively, both banks are happy to provide information about their investment policies to voluntary and community sector organisations who are considering applying for loan funding:
Charity Bank is an organisation experienced in the provision of loan finance and we envisage that our investments will usually include some form of loan.
www.charitybank.org
Unity Trust Bank is the fastest growing commercial bank in the voluntary and community sector.
www.unity.uk.com
Charitable Trusts and Foundations
www.grantsonline.org.uk is the website of the Grant Making Trusts Directory. The main focus of this site, which provides links to UK grant making trusts, is on trusts that provide grants in the fields of education, regeneration, community development and related areas.
Funderfinder is another useful source of information on independent grant making trusts and foundations, and is widely available through intermediary and umbrella organisations. Go to the homepage at www.funderfinder.org.uk and click on the ‘About Us’ button. Scroll down and click on the Annual Report button, then scroll down to the section labelled Access to GIN (Groups in Need). This will tell you where to find the nearest place to access Funderfinder. Most Councils for Voluntary Services will have an edition available.
Government funding
www.governmentfunding.org.uk provides information about, and links to, a wide range of government funding across the various departments.
If you need less than £30,000
If you require less than £30,000 you may find it helpful to speak to the funding advisor at your Local Development Agency / Council for Voluntary Service, or to any of the sources mentioned above.