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Free and open resources for fundraisers to find funders

As a fundraiser, how can you identify potential funders for your work using open data? Here, we outline some of the best free resources for fundraisers to explore when searching for funders.

There are a number of subscription services, such as Directory of Social Change Funds Online, and other free registration services. However, not all charities have the budget available for a subscription or don’t want to register in advance. 360Giving tools and the charity regulator registers provide open data for free, which is a useful starting point for further research. Below, we show you how to find potential funding leads using 360Giving’s GrantNav, UKGrantmaking, the Charity Commission for England and Wales’ advanced search and other resources.

GrantNav

360Giving’s free grants search engine, GrantNav, allows you to see the grants that funders have already made. You can use this to explore funders who have funded similar projects to yours, see who has funded your peers, and see what type of grants a particular funder has awarded, how much they were for, and who received them.

You can use the information you find to help find potential funders and grant programmes to investigate further on their websites, as well as helping to tailor your application to a specific funder based on the types of grants they have awarded previously.

It is important to understand that the search engine is for grants that have already been awarded, not live grant opportunities, but many funders continue to offer similar grant programmes.

Find funders who have supported a particular cause

Use our ‘How to find funders by cause or topic’ search guide to get started with your search for funders using keywords.

Find funders who have funded a similar organisation

Use our ‘How to find funders of specific organisations’ search guide that shows you how to search for funders that have funded a particular recipient.

Find funders who have funded grants in your area

Use our ‘How to find grants in a particular place’ search guide that shows you how to see who is funding and who is being funded in a specific place.

UKGrantmaking

UKGrantmaking is the definitive annual publication on grant funding in the UK. It provides a comprehensive overview of who makes grants across all funding sectors – Government, Trusts and Foundations, National Lottery distributors, Donor-Advised Funds, and Charities.

It’s a free, interactive platform that collates and analyses information on grants made during the most recent year when published statutory accounts information was available. A full list of UK grantmakers included in the analysis is also available to download. You can follow the steps in our guide to finding grantmakers using UKGrantmaking to understand how to explore the data.

For example, you can search or filter by funder name to find a specific grantmaker or filter by area of operation to find grantmakers operating in a specific region. You can also use the ‘who, what, and how’ information from the regulator data included in the download to identify funders supporting specific population groups or themes. 

Charity regulator data

The Charity Commission for England & Wales (CCE&W) has a wealth of data about charitable organisations, accessible via its advanced search function. Using a combination of keywords and filters, fundraisers can use this to identify potential funders who could potentially support their organisation.

Use our Charity Commission for England & Wales (CCE&W) Advanced Search guide to help show you how to use the search.

Tips

  • To identify grantmakers, tick the box to select “Main way of carrying out purposes is grantmaking”.
    • This selects the charitable trusts and foundations on the register. The box is about halfway down the page, just before the geographical filters.
  • There are over 16,000 organisations that have selected that the main way that they carry out their purpose is by grantmaking, so consider adding additional search terms and filters relevant to your cause.
    • You can select classifications about what the charity (the funder) does, who they help and where it operates, or use keywords to search for specific activities.
  • You can export or download the list of organisations that match your search criteria using the link at the bottom of the search page.
  • You can also click through to the record by clicking on the charity name to see if it might be relevant to your organisation, before visiting the funder’s website to explore further.
  • You can widen your geographical search by selecting multiple locations, including selecting ‘ Throughout England and Wales’ to identify nationwide funders.
  • The guide provided is for the CCE&W advanced search, but you can perform a similar search on the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) website and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI) website.

Other useful resources

NAVCA and your local Council for Voluntary Service/Voluntary Action Council

You may also find lists of local funders at your local voluntary sector support service. You can search for your local service on the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA) website.

Find a Grant

Find a Grant is a service that allows you to search for open government grant opportunities. Select Browse Grants from the main screen and then apply filters relevant to your organisation, such as “Non profit” in “Who can apply”.

You can also register for alerts for opportunities in your area.

Contracts Finder

Using Contracts Finder, you can search for funding opportunities valued at over £12,000 (including VAT) from statutory organisations. You should select the filter of “Notice Suitability” equal to “Suitable for VCSE”. 

You can also register for alerts for opportunities in your area. Many of these will be supplier contracts, but there are some for the delivery of services for community support that might overlap with your work.

Research and implementation

Identifying potential funders is just the start. Using data in this way can be a helpful starting point for prioritising and developing your plans. The next step is to explore your eligibility for their programmes and start the application process. 

We hope this helps you to identify potential leads to research. 

Good luck!

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