Church Links

Fundraising from Trusts

Introduction

See also our notes on application planning and applying to a trust.

If your Church has decided to take on Project work for the benefit of the local community, then you will probably need to raise some funds.

You may be able to raise all of the funds you need from members of your congregation, but this is not possible for most Churches and they must consider how else to find the money necessary.

For some Churches money can be raised through special activities that run in their building for example, Christmas Fair, Harvest Supper meal, Craft and Produce sale, however this may not bring in everything that you need and you may need to look to other bodies for help. This is when it is worth considering applying to Trusts.

Fund raising from Trusts

Around 4,500 trusts give away over £3Bn each year in the UK !

Every Trust has criteria on what they are allowed to allocate their funds to. Some might have very general criteria and support anything that they are interested in, in any part of the country. Others might have very specific causes or areas of the country that they support, and these will have been decided on by who ever set up that particular Trust.

There is no point in asking a Trust with very specific criteria to support a Project that is outside their remit, but finding the right Trust to support your Project will benefit you both.

It is also important to remember that although there are a vast number of Trusts, each year most Trusts receive more applications than they can support. This makes it important to do your homework well before applying and include everything that will give your application the best chance of being noticed. But remember it will not help your cause to send paperwork that they do not want or need. Do your research, find out what a Trust wants and stick to it.

Preparation

Before you start to look for money from Trusts, you must decide what you want it for, what it will achieve and how much do you need.

The size of your Project usually will relate to the amount of paperwork that you will need to prepare to make an application to a Trust, but every Project needs to have their information available and on paper.

Follow the link for our recommendations

Applying to Trusts

Trusts come in different shapes and sizes, some only give small amounts of money and you may have to make several different applications, other Trusts make a few large grants each year. Some Trusts only give to national Organisations and some will only give to local Organisations with a small turnover. Different Trusts suit different Projects the key to success is matching your Project to the right Trusts.

Once you have your preparation work down on paper, there are various ways to research these Trusts.

Follow the link for information on applying to Trusts

Church Links works with Churches, Groups and Organisations that are at different stages of their Project work. Some groups need more help than others depending on who is available and what is involved.

We can help you to think through the different aspects of your Project. We may be able to signpost you to another Group that has completed a similar piece of work so that you can benefit from their experience, and we can help you with Business Plans, Budgeting, Job descriptions, Construction planning, searching and applying to Trusts.

If you would like our involvement whether to listen to your ideas or to help with a specific task then please contact us.