Information on grants

Our work with 360Giving

Charities Aid Foundation is committed to transparency and we work with 360Giving to publish information about our grants. We believe that with better information, funders can be more effective and strategic decision makers.

The grants we publish use the 360Giving Data Standard. You can see a summary of our published grant data at 360Giving here. The most recent published grants are available here.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This means the data is freely accessible to anyone to be used and shared as they wish. The data must be attributed to Charities Aid Foundation.

360Giving supports funders to publish open data about their grants and empowers people to use this data to improve charitable giving through a range of free online tools. For more information, visit threesixtygiving.org.

Finding grant opportunities 

We know that our grant programmes are not always open for applications and might not be suitable for everyone when they are. The list below may help you find a grantmaker to support you.

• Grants Online
• Funds Online
• My Funding Central
• Directory of Social Change: funding websites
• GrantNav
• Charity Excellence Framework
• Get Grants
• Find a grant (Gov.uk) 
  
  

Our social investment fund, which offers affordable unsecured loans to charities and social enterprises all over the UK, could also be of interest to you. 

Top tips for applying for a grant

Make sure your charity is eligible

Grant programmes have a clear criteria – make sure you read these first. And when you answer the eligibility questionnaire, try to be as objective as you can. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and effort if you avoid programmes that aren’t a good fit, and instead focus on those that are. 

Read the guidance notes before you complete your application

These include a summary of the information you’ll need to provide and some common questions. All of this is there to help you, so make the best use of it.

Upload all the documents asked for

Make a list of what is asked for, and check everything off the list as you go. If you miss out a document, it can slow down your application – or it might even mean you miss out on a grant.

What do funders look for?

How will you meet the need?

Funders want to know how you’ll meet the needs of the people or causes you support. What’s gone well that you may develop in future?

Have you consulted anyone along the way? Do you have any evidence?

What impact you will have?

There’s almost nothing more important: make this clear, and put it at the heart of your application. How will you use the grant? What difference will it make to you and the people and causes you support? And perhaps most importantly, how will you measure your impact? 

Your capacity 

Funders look for evidence that you’ve thought about the long-term sustainability of your charity and what needs to change in the future. This will include having the right policies in place to carry out your work, and good financial management.

A clear, well-presented budget

Is your budget clear and linked to the activities you’ve planned? Funders want to know you can manage a grant, so they’ll look for evidence. Does your application reflect the impact you want to achieve? Does it give the funder value for money?