Advice and Sources of Assistance

Advice for Grant Seekers
This page aims to provide some advice and links to further sources of support for raising funds from other funders, especially grant making trusts and foundations.

Research in 2010 by the Directory of Social Change found that over a third of applications to charitable grantmakers are declined because they are ineligible i.e. they fall outside a funder's stated areas of interest. Like most grantmakers, the Baring Foundation can only consider eligible applications. The guidelines for each of our grant programmes contain full details of what organisations and types of work the Foundation is currently funding. We have set up specific grant making programmes because experience shows that this is the best way to ensure both that our money supports the most effective projects and that organisations do not waste their time preparing applications which have no chance of success. If you decide that your organisation may be eligible for funds, then we encourage you to get in touch with us to discuss proposals. If you decide that our programmes are unsuitable for your needs, you can get more advice on finding relevant funders by:

• checking the free funding portal run by NCVO Funding Central
  
• reading the advice published by the Association of Charitable Foundations
  
• consulting the Directory of Social Change which publishes a wide range of specialist guides for grant seekers. This organisation also runs subscription websites giving information about trust and foundation funding, government funding and company giving. This short article by the Directory of Social Change gives some sensible and simple tips for fundraising from trusts.
  
• consulting the Europa Gateway to the European Union website for information about European Union funding opportunities.
• consulting the Lottery Good Causes website for information on National Lottery funding.
  

Links to sources of pro bono support
A number of organisations offer to provide expert volunteers to help charities with issues such as strategic planning and ICT. Click on the following links to find out more.

The Cranfield Trust provides free management consultancy for charities and social enterprise groups involved in issues of poverty, disability or social exclusion.
The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists set up the IT4Communities programme to help charities find volunteers to help with their IT needs.
The Worshipful Company of Management Consultants provides mentoring and consulting services to Chairs and Chief Executives of smaller charities.