Charitable trusts and foundations might be a viable source of funding for your group, but they do have restrictions. National trusts tend to only fund work that is in their area of interest – for example the environment or children. Local trusts tend to give smaller amounts to be spent on a wider range of issues, but often only in a local area. You need to look at the trust’s criteria carefully, as many also have exclusions such as: ‘not large national charities’; ‘only national bodies’; ‘not for buildings or capital equipment’; or ‘not based in the south east’. Significant numbers of charitable trusts and foundations identify who they want to fund and don’t accept unsolicited applications.

So, if you decide to apply to a trust, you should spend time researching to ensure your project or activity fits its funding criteria. Recent research by the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF) shows that the levels of applications received and accepted as fitting the funding criteria has plummeted, which suggests applicants are failing to do their homework.