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We help donors to give more impactfully and charities to build their resilience so they can do more of their life-changing work.

Personal giving From one-off donations to long-term giving, or designing your personal philanthropic strategy, we work together to help you realise your giving ambitions. Corporate giving You have the vision for making a difference. So do we. We help you plan how to give based on your goals. Services for charities Helping your charity or social enterprise become more resilient. Insights Discover the latest insights for donors and charitable organisations to help create a greater impact About us We are a leading charity, working at the centre of the giving world. We help donors to give more impactfully and charities to build their resilience so they can do more of their life-changing work. Donate  
 
 
 

Personal giving

From one-off donations to long-term giving, or designing your personal philanthropic strategy, we work together to help you realise your giving ambitions.

DISCOVER OUR PERSONAL GIVING SOLUTIONS

Corporate giving

You have the vision for making a difference. So do we. We help you plan how to give based on your goals.

DISCOVER OUR CORPORATE GIVING SOLUTIONS

Services for charities

Helping your charity or social enterprise become more resilient.

DISCOVER HOW WE SUPPORT CHARITIES

Insights

Discover the latest insights for donors and charitable organisations to help create a greater impact

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About us

We are a leading charity, working at the centre of the giving world. We help donors to give more impactfully and charities to build their resilience so they can do more of their life-changing work.

Find out more about CAF

New portal for grant applicants and grant holders

How CAF uses the Blackbaud Grantmaking platform to support the delivery of our grantmaking programmes.

New portal for applicants and grant holders


CAF uses the Blackbaud Grantmaking™ platform to support the delivery of our grantmaking programmes. It’s where we build and receive applications and report templates, and it’s the tool for sharing important information with grant holders.

We have been using Blackbaud Grantmaking across our programmes for over eight years and we’re excited about new functionality that is now available to applicants and grant holders via the new applicant portal. 

We will be rolling this out across our different programmes throughout 2025 and we have provided important information and guidance about the changes below. We want to reassure you that this new portal is a positive evolution and will enable further improvements to fair, efficient and transparent grantmaking in the future.

Note: we will continue to update this page throughout 2025 as further guidance and updates are available [webpage last updated 06/02/2025].

Benefits for applicants and grant holders

  • Easier to use application forms as well as an improved experience when using the platform on mobile or tablet devices.
  • A more up to date user experience with increased accessibility.      
  • A single secure Blackbaud ID account to manage all applications to funders using Blackbaud Grantmaking in one consolidated portal.
  • If you use other Blackbaud products, such as Raisers Edge, you won’t need to create a secondary login.
  • Applicants can see all draft and submitted applications from any foundation using Blackbaud Grantmaking, not just those you have submitted to CAF, on one clear page.
  • Multiple staff from your organisation can be set up to access your application forms if required.

Important changes

  • Different grant programmes will transition to the new portal at different times between now and August 2025. If you have a grant from more than one programme, you may need to use both portals until August 2025. 
  • From September 2025, the current applicant portal will no longer be accessible to applicants and grant holders.     
  • If you have existing applications and reports in the current applicant portal, please ensure you have downloaded and saved them before 31 August 2025. You will not be able to access them after this date. We provide guidance on how to download any in progress or submitted applications or reports below.       

Important links

Please note, you cannot start a new application for any grant programme via these links. You can find details of any live grant programmes here.

Important actions

We recommend you take these actions to ensure the transition to the new applicant portal is straightforward for you.


  • Before starting a new application for a grant programme on the new portal, you will be asked to create a new BBID. Details on how to do this are listed in the FAQ section below. 
  • Please bookmark this page and refer back to it for further updates throughout 2025.
  • Bookmark the Important Links above.
  • Add noreply@yourcause.com to your safe senders list.   
  • Download and save any in progress and submitted applications from the old portal before August 2025.
  • Download and save any in progress and submitted grant requirements (eg grant acceptance, progress report, end of grant report) before August 2025.

Which grant programmes are using the new or the old portal at present? 


New portal: Building Resilience Fund

Old portal: All other programmes managed by CAF grantmaking currently use the old portal. We will update this as we transition each programme to the new portal during 2025. 

Any questions?

Please see the FAQs about the new applicant portal below. 

If you can’t find the information you need through the guidance or FAQs below, please submit your query via this form. This will help us to update this page with useful and timely information. 

Frequently asked questions 

Applicant accounts

Navigate to the new portal for applicants and grant holders here. Click ‘create’ account and follow the prompts to create a BBID with your email or via SSO, Google or Apple. You will need to confirm your email address and choose a password with at least 12 characters. A link to further help is provided on that page.  

Select a secure password which has at least 12 characters and at least 3 of the following: lowercase, uppercase, number, special character (!, #, % etc.).

An account with that email address already exists, please request a new password instead.

The email address being entered is incorrect format. An example of the valid format is grantseeker@organisation.org

You can reset your password from the new portal log in page directly. Enter the email address for your new portal BBID account. Click continue to sign in, and then click ‘Forgot password’. An email containing a 6-digit code will be sent to that email address to confirm your identity (please check your junk email). Enter that code to enable you to reset your password. 

You will have only one account to manage grant forms from all funders which use Blackbaud Grantmaking. If you have any existing account with Blackbaud products (e.g. Raisers Edge), you can log in with that BBID. 

Yes, you can add additional applicants as contacts when you apply to a programme. They will also have access to the application and any requirement forms.

Please add noreply@yourcause.com to your safe senders list; this will help emails to reach you quickly and easily. Please also check that the email address used for your account has not been misspelt and is the same as the email address you regularly use. 

You can view and adjust your account details and language setting via the drop down on the top right hand corner of your account page.

When you have started or submitted any grant applications, they will appear on the ‘My applications’ page. For easy access, any requirements for that application will appear on the same page.

About Blackbaud Grantmaking

No, CAF cannot see your applications to any other funders which also use Blackbaud Grantmaking. All your applications to other funders are visible to you within the new applicant portal to streamline your fundraising process, but funders can only access applications and data which are relevant to their own programmes.

Blackbaud Grantmaking is a separate platform, which is not linked to any other CAF products that charities or donors use, such as CAF Donate or CAF Bank. Data held in the Blackbaud Grantmaking platform is held separately from any other product.

No, we are able to transition each programme in turn at different times until August 2025. There will be no pause in programmes or decision making due to the transition to the new portal. It is important that this does not negatively impact applicants and grant holders.

We are phasing our programmes in based on timelines that affect our grant holders the least. We want to make this transition as easy as possible.

Existing applications and requirements

From September 2025, the old applicant portal will no longer be accessible to applicants and grant holders. Therefore, please ensure that you: 

  • Download and save any submitted applications from the old portal before August 2025
  • Download and save any in progress and submitted grant requirements (eg grant acceptance, progress report, end of grant report) before August 2025

You can access your account on the old portal here.

 

Your End of Grant report will be accessible in the new portal. We will provide further information  on this in the coming months. 

Users will need to log into the old applicant portal before 31 August and download and save any application or reports (requirements) that you wish to save. These will not be accessible from 1 September 2025.

Navigate to your submitted applications via the drop down menu. Click on the name of a submitted application to open it in a printer friendly format. 'Save as' or 'Print' to retain the content of the application for future reference. 

Repeat this process for in progress and submitted requirements. 

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