Our Interim CEO and fundraising mentor and trainer, Claire Haffenden, shares her top tips for finding Trust funders.
Start by getting a long list of potential funders, here’s some places to look:
- Sign up to receive Kent Community Foundation’s newsletter and KCC’s Inside Track newsletter these are the best sources of information about Kent based funders
- Make use of Kent County Council’s free funder search tool, which will give you a tailored list of funders to suit your project or activity
Most organisations can find the Funders they need from the free searches mentioned above, but if you wish to pay for a Funder database there are a number of options available including:
Beware of spending too much time looking for Funders; many of the search sites are repetitive.
Once you have a long list of potential funders check out the information provided in your funder searches and the funder’s website (if they have one), this will help you to shortlist the best potentials.
Sort through your long list and prioritise it; we recommend a high, medium low approach, where high are the funders you think you stand the best chance of success with. When sorting through potential Funders consider:
- Are you a good fit with their criteria? If you aren’t take them off your list
- If they don’t accept unsolicited applications don’t apply to them, it’s a waste of your time
- If it is worth submitting an application eg. If a Funder only gives 20 grants across the UK and has a long application form, it may not be worth your time and effort applying
- Is there a deadline and if so is it achievable for you to submit an application in time for the deadline?
By the end you may have a very short list of potential funders. Don’t worry about this, they are very well considered Funders and you may just have managed to maximise your chances of success and cut down on wasted time and effort.
Good luck!