It’s the most competitive philanthropic environment in a generation. The number of registered UK charities has grown by more than 130% to over 170,000 in recent years. In an increasingly crowded and complex marketplace for ideas, people and resources, securing support from trusts and foundations requires more than persuasive writing.
Charities that are winning the most and the best support have learned that it’s partnerships rather than projects that keep the money coming.
The most successful funders are very selective in who they work with, and most want to be partners rather than supplicants. Charities that can demonstrate effectiveness, efficient use of resources and close alignment with strategic priorities have an edge in today’s funding environment. The most successful organisations recognise that they need to have meaningful conversations with their funders, present the full picture in their reports (warts and all), and are seen to be adding to the wider learning within their sector. It’s not just about the application form anymore.
In this article, we will explore the UK funding landscape in detail, look at what major UK funders are looking for in terms of requirements and what they need from a successful partnership. We will review the systems and approaches that are needed to turn one-off grants into long-term partnerships, and help you to understand the essential elements of relationship building that can sustain your work for years to come.
If you are a UK charity that has experienced limited success in accessing funding, or are looking to do more than dip your toe into the search for pots of money, this article is for you.
UK Grant-Making Landscape
There are around 10,000 grant-making trusts and foundations in the UK distributing more than £5 billion every year to support all kinds of different projects. From small family trusts giving out small local grants to large national and international foundations such as The Wellcome Trust with assets of over £25 billion. The UK funding landscape is a rich and diverse ecosystem, and building sustainable funding partnerships means understanding it well.
In recent years, UK grant-making has been transformed by shifts in funding approaches and expectations from donors and trusts. The traditional approach to grant-making with its annual applications, restrictions on projects that can be funded and limited engagement has been eroded over the past decade. More and more funders now talk about their grantees as partners and are looking for charities with which they can work in the longer term. In this context, there are opportunities for charities who understand how to win funding and develop long-term partnerships.
Funders are increasingly willing to fund core costs and provide multi-year grants for established partners. Collaboration with other funders has become a lot more common. Grant applications themselves are being simplified with many funders recognising that a high cost per pound of grant application does not equal high impact. The focus is also increasingly on impact measurement and learning rather than output measurement and report writing. A sophisticated approach to charity grant funding, which goes beyond the grant application, is a must in this rapidly changing context.
For those charities not regularly winning funding it can sometimes feel like an impenetrable environment. Charities coming into a funder for the first time are competing for their time and resources with charities who have built long-standing relationships with them. In addition, they are coming up against years of investment and relationship building by competitors on the inside track. For all these reasons, an understanding of the landscape and strategic approach to funding are essential to creating sustainable change.
Challenges of the UK Funding Landscape
There are a number of key trends and challenges currently facing the UK funding landscape.
Increased Competition
The number of charities competing for grants and the level of demand for funds has never been higher. More organisations are coming to market for the first time and creating demand for pots of money in the process. At the same time, there is an increasing awareness of the importance of reserves and cash flow from trustees and chief executives that is pushing more charities to proactively seek funding to plug gaps. There is a resulting competition for funding between charities to find new pots of money and apply for grants, which is adding to the downward pressure on the funding landscape.
Increased Need
Charities have always competed with each other to access the funding, but the gap between those that can access funding and those that cannot has never been wider. Charities that have grown too quickly in the past, by winning new grants, are now in a vulnerable position as grant income starts to dry up. This is particularly evident in areas like health and social care where government funding is being cut back dramatically and the demand for services is outstripping capacity in the sector. Charities are competing not just with each other but with public services to access these funds.
Increased Scrutiny
As part of their scrutiny, funders have become more risk averse in the past few years and are more likely to take a view on the value of an organisation before making a grant. They are also more likely to be influenced by the size of the applicant rather than their specific expertise in a particular area. As a result, it is often hard for new applicants to break into the funding landscape. For example, a small local community group that wins a large grant from a national funder may find it difficult to access funding from other major funders, even if it is better placed to make an impact on a particular issue.
A good understanding of the landscape is vital for charities that want to access funding. An approach to securing funding that is tailored to the current market conditions and the specific requirements of each funder is essential to success.
Winning Strategies
Charities who want to access funding need to understand the dynamics of the current funding landscape and adopt winning strategies for success.
Build relationships with funders
Relationship building is key. Charities that can demonstrate that they are open and honest with their funders, and that they are a trusted partner that can be relied upon, are much more likely to be successful in their funding applications. Building relationships with funders also helps charities to better understand what funders want and how they might best approach them.
Invest in impact
Charities need to invest in building their impact, as this will help them to win funding. The evidence base around the impact of charities is patchy and improving it will make a difference. Charities should use their existing impact data to demonstrate the value they add to society and how their work can benefit other organisations in the future.
Focus on long-term partnerships
Charities need to focus on developing long-term relationships with funders. They need to understand the funder’s needs and priorities, and be able to articulate how their work can help meet them. They also need to build trust and credibility with the funder, so they are seen as a trusted partner.
Winning strategies are about more than just applying for grants. Charities need to be open and honest with their funders, and to be able to articulate the value they add to society and how their work can benefit other organisations in the future.
Major UK Funders: Requirements and Expectations
National Lottery Community Fund
The National Lottery Community Fund is the largest community funder in the UK, distributing over £600 million a year to projects that improve communities and make a difference to people’s lives. The Fund is a statutory distributor of National Lottery funds, which means it is required to support projects that have a clear community benefit and meet its principles of good practice.
The Fund has been investing in community projects for over 25 years, and its current strategic plan prioritises projects that bring people together, build strong communities, and improve lives in local areas. They are particularly interested in applications that demonstrate community involvement in the design and delivery of projects. Successful applicants typically show evidence of community consultation, local partnerships, and plans for sustainable impact beyond the funding period.
The Fund’s application process can vary depending on the programme, but there are some key elements that make successful applications stand out. The Fund expects applicants to provide detailed evidence of community need, supported by local data and consultation findings. They also assess organisational capacity rigorously, looking at governance, financial management, and safeguarding policies. Finally, they expect realistic budgets with clear justification for all costs, including overheads.
National Lottery Community Fund are increasingly open to more flexible funding approaches, including support for core costs and longer grant periods for established partnerships. They’ve simplified application processes for smaller grants, recognising that complex applications can exclude grassroots organisations. For charities seeking partnership, the key is demonstrating authentic community connection, robust governance, and realistic plans for measuring and reporting impact. Building relationships with local funding officers before applying is crucial, as these officers can provide guidance on aligning proposals with current priorities.
BBC Children in Need
BBC Children in Need is a unique funder with a focused mission to support disadvantaged children and young people across the UK. They distribute approximately £50 million annually to fund projects that help children facing disadvantage through illness, distress, abuse, neglect, or disability, as well as those living in poverty or in situations of deprivation.
The organisation has a specific assessment criteria that reflects a child-centred approach to funding. They are looking for projects that will have a direct and meaningful impact on young people’s lives. This often means they prioritise applications that involve children and young people in the design and delivery of projects, demonstrate an understanding of the particular challenges faced by beneficiaries, and show clear pathways to improved outcomes.
Successful applications to Children in Need articulate very clearly how the project will make a measurable difference to the wellbeing, safety or opportunities of children. As their funding is for projects rather than core costs, Children in Need expect to see detailed information on how organisations will deliver these projects including safeguarding, governance and financial management. They do due diligence on all applicants and organisations with weak governance or financial issues are unlikely to be successful.
For organisations working with children and young people, what makes for a successful partnership with Children in Need is demonstrating genuine expertise in working with disadvantaged young people, robust safeguarding practices and commitment to measuring and reporting outcomes. They also value honesty about challenges and learning, preferring organisations that report difficulties openly over those that present an unrealistically positive picture. Building a relationship with Children in Need means investing in strong safeguarding systems, developing meaningful participation for young people and having robust monitoring frameworks that capture real outcomes rather than just outputs. They also value collaboration, often favouring applications that demonstrate partnership working with other local organisations.
Lloyds Bank Foundation
Lloyds Bank Foundation is an organisation that has led the way in recognising that in order for philanthropy to have maximum impact, it needs to build the organisational resilience of the charities they work with. Lloyds Bank Foundation is focused exclusively on investing in small and medium charities who work with people facing complex social issues.
Lloyds Bank Foundation have built their funding model around an understanding of the challenges that charities face in achieving long-term sustainability. They provide core costs funding, which is extremely rare in the UK, and recognise that unrestricted support enables organisations to invest in infrastructure, retain skilled staff, and respond flexibly to changing circumstances. They also typically provide multi-year grants, giving stability to charities that allows them to plan strategically rather than jumping from one short-term grant to another.
Assessment criteria focuses heavily on organisational strength and potential. Lloyds Bank Foundation will look closely at governance, financial management, leadership capability, and strategic clarity. They are interested in organisations who have reached an inflection point and are looking to strengthen their foundations for greater impact. Successful applications demonstrate both current effectiveness and realistic plans for organisational development.
What makes Lloyds Bank Foundation partnerships particularly valuable is their ongoing support for core costs and commitment to capacity building beyond the funding itself. Grant recipients can access training, peer learning networks, and consultancy support designed to strengthen organisational resilience. The Foundation invests in understanding their partners’ challenges and provides flexible support that responds to evolving needs. The organisation has created an approach to funding which reflects their belief that effective philanthropy means investing in organisations not just projects.
Charities looking to work with Lloyds Bank Foundation need to demonstrate both impact and organisational ambition. They want to be investing in organisations who are doing excellent work with the potential to become even stronger. Applications need to show clear organisational development goals alongside programme outcomes, demonstrating how core costs funding will enable strategic growth. Lloyds Bank Foundation values honest assessment of organisational challenges and realistic plans for addressing them. They prefer authentic self-awareness over polished perfection.
Building Strategic Partnerships for Charity Success
Creating meaningful partnerships with trusts and foundations isn’t just about transactions; it’s about building relationships. Charities most effective in securing funds understand their funders are potential long-term partners. Building relationships with these entities involves learning about their priorities, clearly demonstrating alignment, and cultivating trust through consistent, transparent communication.
Building relationships before applying is the most important, yet often neglected, part of successful fundraising. Research shows that the majority of charities send applications to funders they have never spoken to in the hope their proposals will be successful on their own merit. That approach can, of course, work on occasion, particularly with smaller trusts and foundations. However, the most significant players in the UK grant-making landscape receive more applications than they could ever fund. To make the most of the effort that goes into crafting applications, the most successful charities spend time getting to know their prospective funders. They research potential funders, attend their events, read their publications and get in touch before they begin the application process. They don’t bombard busy programme officers with requests for meetings, but they do signal genuine interest in the funder’s work and an interest in finding out whether working with this particular funder might be a mutually beneficial partnership.
Initial conversations should be about listening, not asking. Call to find out about current priorities, any grants they’re particularly excited about having made recently, and challenges they’re seeing in the sector. Talk about your work, but don’t jump to requests for funding. These calls and meetings help you find out if your organisation and their priorities truly align and, more importantly, help the funder get to know you before receiving your application. When that comes, you are not a mysterious organisation whose potential can only be understood from a piece of paper, but someone they have already spent time with and enjoyed talking to.
Demonstrating impact and learning is an essential element in building solid partnerships. The grant-making sector is rapidly moving towards an expectation of evidenced-based approaches, clearly articulated theories of change and well-planned monitoring and evaluation frameworks. However, the best funders, as well as expecting evidence that your work makes a difference, also value openness about what doesn’t work. Charities are in the business of tackling complex social problems, and funders know this. The most sophisticated grant-givers are happy for you to report what you’ve found when things have not gone to plan and how you’re learning and improving as a result. The best trust and foundation partners are more interested in a charity that reports honestly, sharing challenges and learning as well as success and achievement.
Demonstrating impact, of course, requires investing in appropriate data collection and analysis systems. It does not necessarily mean signing up for expensive, bespoke evaluation models, but having the right tools to record and analyse what information is most valuable to tracking and learning about your effectiveness. A charity management system can be an important enabler here, allowing you to track data relating to your beneficiaries, programme delivery and outcome metrics that funders will want to see.
Transparent communication and reporting is another element that separates good partnership from transactional relationships. Rather than seeing reporting as a chore to be completed as quickly as possible, charities that build relationships with funders see it as an opportunity to engage. They use it to share honest progress updates, highlight challenges early and bring funders into conversations to help solve problems. This approach not only leads to better reporting, but also to more open, collaborative and trusting relationships with funders.
One of the mistakes that too many charities make is contacting funders only when they have applications to submit or reports to complete. Building long-term partnerships means regular contact throughout the year, sharing relevant updates, inviting funders to events, and asking for their input on strategic questions. By keeping funders informed and involved, you keep them more likely to stay interested in your success and to view you as a long-term partner they want to support.
Aligning values and mission is an obvious but important principle of building long-term partnerships. The most sustainable and productive funding relationships are between organisations that share basic values and approach to tackling social problems. Before investing too much time in a particular funder, spend time honestly considering whether real alignment is present. Do they share your commitment to things like beneficiary voice and representation in the sector? Do their funding practices and approaches to partnership respect and reflect the values you care about? Are their expectations and reporting requirements reasonable, and does their approach to being a funding partner seem genuine? The effort of trying to build funding relationships with funders who are not aligned with you will almost always end in frustration for both parties, even if successful grants are received.
Ultimately, the goal of building relationships with funders is to move from being seen as simply a funding recipient to a strategic partner. Strategic partners in the funding world don’t just receive money, but provide funders with learning, contribute to conversations about the sector and the issues it works on, and work with funders to address shared challenges. Achieving that status as a partner takes time and requires consistently demonstrating your expertise and contribution to the sector, rather than simply talking about your own organisation. It means being a resource for funders, not just a recipient of their resources.
Choosing a Charity CRM to Build Better Partnerships
Charity management software is now a critical part of the infrastructure of any organisation that wants to be serious about building long-term partnerships with funders. A well-chosen, well-implemented charity system does far more than store contact information. It underpins the relationship management, impact tracking and strategic communication that is increasingly expected by trusts and foundations.
Tracking relationships and interactions over time is the most fundamental way a good charity CRM helps you build better partnerships. Relationship building that has a chance of success relies on institutional memory. Knowing who you have and haven’t spoken to, what was discussed, commitments made, the history of the relationship, and so on. In most organisations, that institutional knowledge exists in the heads of individual staff members, making the team vulnerable when people leave and coordinated relationship management nearly impossible.
The real value of choosing a UK charity CRM is the ability to systematically record every interaction, with funders or otherwise. Your CRM records meetings and calls, emails, grant applications submitted and their outcomes, next steps, and information about individuals in funding organisations, their interests and priorities, and the entire history of your relationship. This information allows anyone on the team to quickly get up to speed on where you stand with a particular funder and continue a conversation from the last interaction. When you’re preparing to apply for funding, your team can review past interactions to ensure your proposal reflects what you said the last time you met, as well as address any issues they raised previously.
Managing reporting requirements and deadlines is also significantly more straightforward with the right systems in place. Most charities have several grants, each with their own reporting schedule, requirements and, often, different contacts. Missing deadlines, or sending incomplete reports, damages your funder relationships and jeopardises future funding. A good charity management system can automate deadline tracking and reporting assignment to make sure nothing falls between the cracks.
Systems that go a step further by integrating grant management with programme delivery tracking can allow reports to be drawn from the same information used for monitoring and delivery. That integration is not only faster, but often results in better-quality reports, because the information is coming from systematic tracking, rather than staff member memory or quickly assembled anecdotes.
Demonstrating impact through data management has become another expectation of most funders. Trusts and foundations want to see evidence of effectiveness, clear outcome measurement and honest impact assessment. All of that requires data and systematic collection and analysis, and again, a charity management system is the enabler.
Charity management software that allows for integration of beneficiary data, programme delivery, and outcome tracking means your organisation can demonstrate impact with solid evidence, not simply stories. It can allow for analysis of which interventions work best for which beneficiaries, tracking of trends over time, and honesty about where your programmes have gaps or are falling short. That evidence-based approach will give funders confidence and support winning applications for continued or increased funding.
Supporting personalized communication with funders is the other major advantage of a CRM. Like most people, funders want to feel like valued individuals rather than interchangeable funding bodies. The right CRM allows for segmentation based on interest, funding history and stage of relationship, which lets you tailor communications that reflect each funder’s specific priorities and your shared history.
But it’s not just about mail merges. It’s about remembering that one funder in particular cares about X, another is particularly interested in beneficiary voice, and another is more concerned about organisational capacity. With a good CRM, your communications can speak to the parts of your work that matter most to each of your funders and show you understand and appreciate their unique priorities.
Maintaining institutional memory as staff members come and go is the final major way a CRM helps build better partnerships. This is especially important with fundraising staff, who typically turnover at a faster rate than other teams. When people leave, their relationships with funders leave with them, if nothing else has been done to capture and record it. The best CRM systems ensure any new person can quickly understand your funder relationships, review the interaction history, and start building on them rather than starting from scratch.
This is particularly valuable with funders that you work with over years. Being able to reference specific conversations from years ago, recognise how the relationship has evolved over time and show how their funding has contributed to the development of your organisation is an important way to strengthen your relationships and position for future support.
Charity Promotion and Positioning
Charity promotion and marketing to trusts and foundations is, on some level, a completely different activity to public fundraising. Instead of awareness-raising and encouraging public giving, it’s about positioning. The most successful organisations in securing funding from trusts and foundations have systematic approaches to demonstrating credibility and expertise and to communicating that consistently at every touchpoint with current and potential funders.
Publishing, contributing to sector publications, speaking at conferences, and engaging with policy discussions are some of the ways that your organisation can establish itself as a thought leader. When funders see your organisation contributing to the knowledge and debate in your field, they don’t just see a potential grant recipient; they see a voice they want to support.
Visibility means ensuring funders encounter your organisation through multiple channels. That includes maintaining a clear, professional website that makes it easy for a funder to understand your mission, approach and impact, thoughtful social media engagement on the platforms funders are using, and participating in networks and coalitions that will bring you into contact with decision-makers. The goal isn’t aggressive self-promotion, but rather to make sure that when a funder is researching organisations working in the same field as you, your organisation consistently comes up.
Positioning also means that funders can clearly see your organisation’s distinctive contribution. A crowded sector means funders need to know what makes you different and why funding you is the best use of their resources. This isn’t about claiming your organisation is the only one in your area of work or field (collaboration is encouraged). It’s about clearly articulating your specific approach, expertise or reach, which sets you apart from other organisations.
Conclusion
Winning long-term partnerships with trusts and foundations requires a lot more than well-written applications. It requires strategic relationship building, systems for data collection and impact demonstration, open communication, and a genuine alignment of values and mission. Charities that find sustainable funding invest in understanding the grant-making landscape, building relationships before applying and promoting themselves as credible partners rather than passive recipients.
The grant-making sector’s shift towards a partnership approach to philanthropy presents opportunities for the organisations that invest in the infrastructure and approach that funders increasingly require. A sophisticated charity management system, strategic promotion and a commitment to open reporting and honest learning set organisations up for long-term success. In an increasingly competitive funding environment, the right investments in these areas don’t just help you win individual grants; they build the long-term partnerships that will support your mission for years to come.
