What is trust fundraising?

With grateful thanks to Tamsyn Wymer, Fiona Watson, Nadia Ghauri and Claire Jeffris for their contributions to this post. 

Trust Fundraising is the practice of raising money from charitable grant making trusts and foundations on behalf of charitable organisations who deliver direct work to people, places and communities. 

Grant making Trusts 

The UK has in the region of 8,000 active grant making trusts giving away a total of £8bn each year.

They achieve their charitable objectives by donating funds to charities who deliver directly to beneficiaries (whether that be people, places, causes or campaigns).  It is a requirement of law that they do this.

Trusts and Foundations are charities, registered with the appropriate registering / regulatory body (e.g. Charity Commission for England and Wales / Scottish Register of Charities).  

We wrote more about grant making trusts in this article.

It is the job of a fundraiser to secure funds from Grant making Trusts and Foundations.

Trust Fundraising is both an art and a science and involves:

• Researching potential supporters for your charitable organisation, using published eligibility criteria (which are different for each funder) and making sure that we filter correctly to determine whether or not they’re a good fit
• Connecting with representatives from the grant making trust to explore the possibility of making an application.
• Working with colleagues from inside your charity to understand the work you need funding for (sometimes this includes developing new projects)
• Writing applications, using as few words as possible to show off your work, your impact and the difference a gift would make to the people your charity serves.
• Reporting back on money spent and further building the relationship to enable ongoing support. 

The practice of Trust Fundraising requires the fundraiser to understand the motivations of the individuals at each Trust and their application process, to the best of their knowledge / experience.  

Sometimes these are not explicit and must be assumed.  Great judgement is key.

Competition for funds is ever increasing and with every year that passes, charities are having to become more discerning about the Trusts they approach, ensuring that each and every one is a really great fit. 

What trust fundraising is not…

Trust fundraising is not to be confused with Statutory Fundraising / bid writing (where money comes from government and not from private sources) – of course there can be crossover and many fundraisers will work on both. 

The term ‘Grant Fundraising’ is often used interchangeably for the respective practices of both Trust and Statutory Fundraising. 

Confusing?  Yes, absolutely. 

There is also crossover with Major Gifts fundraising which is the practice of building relationships with people who have the capacity to make gifts which are significantly larger than the average.  Success here is more dependent on a relationship based approach, compared with a formal, written process which tends to be the case for Trust Fundraising). 

Corporates tend to require a partnership approach, though some will funnel their giving through a separately constituted grant making trust (usually funded through annual profits).  

How much can Trust Fundraising make for my charity? 

The amount of money that an individual fundraiser can generate from Trust Fundraising is different and varies according to a number of factors:

• The number of fundraising opportunities which are available to that particular charity 
• The experience and ability of the fundraiser 
• The amount of time available to dedicate to trust fundraising 
• The level of distractions / competing priorities a fundraiser is subject to
• The quality of the relationship between fundraiser and operational staff (i.e. can the right information be gained and shared quickly and easily between both parties)
• Availability of suitable projects and activities within a charity 
• Whether or not as charity has the ‘right’ level of reserves 
• Availability of trust fundraising training and continuous professional development

Size of charity and ensuring your funding requests are proportionate is an important consideration too.  For example, a charity turning over £500,000 each year is highly unlikely to get a multiple six figure / seven figure grant. 

Trust Fundraising is undoubtedly one of the most efficient fundraising activities a charity can do.  

Done well and with consistent application, it can generate an average of £10 for every £1 spent.  Return on investment tends to improve over time.  

However it’s really important to set your target based on your charity’s own circumstances.

Trust fundraising myths 

Because of the large amounts of money at stake, there is a tendency towards thinking that Trust Fundraising is easy, or that funds are readily available for every cause that needs it.

Classic trust fundraising myths:

• Trust fundraising is easy, it’s as simple as filling in a quick form.
• There is plenty of money available
• It can be outsourced, freeing up members of staff to focus on delivering our charitable work 
• ALL of our applications are BOUND to get funded 

The truth is:

Trust fundraising takes time and practice to get right (though it does get much easier the more you do it).  It’s definitely possible to wing it, alongside your day job, depending on how much you need to raise.

It’s critical to ensure that the resources you have available for trust fundraising and your fundraising target are aligned.  If you’re spending £10,000 on trust fundraising each month and your target is £200,000 then unless you have some very warm and well established relationships, several hot prospects identified and a very experienced trust fundraiser on board, you might find it too much of a stretch.

Setting bonkers targets and having to reforecast halfway through a financial year will have obvious implications on your operation. 

Know also that it has to be a team effort – you can’t hire a trust fundraiser and expect never to speak to them again – you need to be intimately involved in the co-creation of your work.  Trust fundraisers must work closely with programme staff to identify and understand projects to present to trusts (and even to help develop budgets and monitoring, evaluation and dissemination plans).

There is way more demand than there are funds.  

Not only will most applications be rejected but the vast majority will be left completely unanswered. Feedback is the exception rather than the rule and being resilient is essential.

Having said that, with myths duly busted and a healthy and realistic attitude in place, trust fundraising can be a hugely rewarding career and a fantastic way to raise funds for charities doing awesome work.