Funding

To support the growth of your community group, accessing funding can provide exciting opportunities to develop specific projects and address your key objectives and aims.

Are You Ready For Funding?

To support the growth of your community group, accessing funding can provide exciting opportunities to develop specific projects and address your key objectives and aims.

There are some boxes you will need to tick to ensure your group is ready to apply for funding. A useful checklist is available here that covers questions on the set-up of your group. This includes:

• Your group constitution and committee
• Your legal structure
• Policies and procedures
• Plan of action

There are also a wide range of additional help sheets available via our subscription programme that will give you access to our funding database and monthly funding newsletter.

Planning For Community Voluntary Organisations

As you grow as an organisation, planning becomes increasingly important.

Your organisation may just have one project which requires a simple project plan, or you may wish to develop a full business/strategic plan for your organisation.

If you are thinking of applying for funding or having several funding streams, creating a specific funding strategy is useful. You can download a free Developing a Fundraising Strategy worksheet here.

Remember that any plan needs to be flexible, enabling you to respond to changes in your organisation or the environment in which it works.

Organisational Business Plan

Once your organisation is established, it is important to review your strategic direction regularly. An important way to move forward is by preparing a Business Plan which includes key sections.

Business Plan’s key sections here.

It is important to include trustees, staff, volunteers and end-users in the process and review your plan regularly. Be prepared to change your plans if new opportunities arise or some activities are unsuccessful.

Funding project planning

When planning your proposed funded projects, it is important for your group to ask and respond to key questions addressing your purpose, intended results and resources.

Further details are available here.

Types Of Funding

There are several main sources of funding and each has different characteristics, criteria and eligibility. Some sources provide a range of funding types including grants, contracts and service level agreements with voluntary organisations.
When researching appropriate funding sources for your work do consider the type of support as well as the source.