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Sourcing funding for any charitable endeavour can be a challenge - especially if you are an individual.
When you’re part of a team, you can delegate roles when it comes to researching, inquiring and applying for funding. If you’re going it alone, there is a lot of responsibility to undertake.
That being said, if you are passionate about making a positive difference to a specific group or community - securing funding is the only way you can achieve this. What many people don’t realise, is that there are plenty of charity grants and funding opportunities available for individuals.
In this blog, we will outline what you need to know, as well as list our top options for you to consider.
Charity Grant Giving for Individuals: The Process
It’s important to remember that charity grants are not simply handed over. There is a detailed, strenuous process that both organisations and individuals must go through to prove their worth.
Individuals in particular must remember to cover all areas, and be as as possible to stand out from the rest.
Before you even begin looking for funding opportunities, you need to be clear about what you want to achieve, and how that aligns with a charity’s mission. It’s more than likely you will want to support an underprivileged or underrepresented group of people - ask yourself the following key questions to help unpack your motivations:
Who exactly do you want to help?
Where are they located?
Is there a high demand for help?
How do you propose to help?
How much do you need to make your plans a success?
How does this fit in with the chosen charity’s goals?
Keep in mind that charities will have their own set of criteria that have to be met. When applying for a grant, you must reassure the charity of the following:
That the grant won’t pose reputational risks to the charity
That you are welcoming of ongoing monitoring and check-ins of the charity
That your activities align with the charity’s purposes, goals and overall mission
That you will abide by the charity’s terms and conditions and/or restrictions on how the grant is spent
It is also important to be aware of the different reasons charities may have for giving grants, beyond an individual aligning with its charitable purposes and governing documents. For example, some charities:
Are set up specifically to fund community projects
Provide grants to individuals based in other countries to fund their education
Provide services directly and provide a percentage of their income in grants
Are set up to provide grants for any charitable purpose
Once you have determined which type of grant will best suit your needs and plan, you can then begin the process of finding funding that will help you get started.
Finding a Grant
Searching for a grant can be very overwhelming. To combat muddling through endless Google pages, we created FundReady.
FundReady is an industry-leading funding information and support service. It is a subscription-based service, offering support packages to meet the needs of organisations and individuals within the third and not-for-profit sector.
FundReady also provides alerts, letting you know when a grant is open for applications along with a short synopsis of the grant opportunity. Our database holds more than 1000 funds and is growing every single day. Through this, you can instantly apply for funding while massively reducing your research time.
As we at S3 help those across the UK and Ireland to secure funding from public sector bodies, charitable trusts and corporate donors - you can trust our solution FundReady to help you, too. To gain access to FundReady, all you have to do is complete a simple signup process or contact info@fundready.com and one of our team will get in touch.
Charity Grants and Funding for Individuals
One great example of a charity grant for individuals is The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. It is a Quaker Trust which supports people who address the root causes of conflict and injustice. JRCT is interested in funding work which:
Focuses on removing problems through radical solutions, and not simply about making problems easier to live with
Has a clear sense of objectives, and of how to achieve them
Is innovative and imaginative
Offers a good chance of making a difference
The Trust makes grants to a range of organisations and to individuals, so long as they fit within JRCT’s areas of interests, including:
Peace and security
Power and accountability e.g. responsible media and equality
Rights and justice
Sustainable future e.g. better economics
Northern Ireland e.g. support ongoing transformation of conflict-heavy areas
Cross-cutting e.g. a mix of the above mentioned priorities
There are a wealth of other charity grants and funding available for individuals, depending on the reason for applying. Each charitable fund will have their own enquiry/application process that you will need to follow. In most cases, these are usually split into two stages:
Making an initial enquiry to the charity
Submitting a formal application for help
There are three main ways that funds accept enquiries:
Through dedicated grant databases such as Turn2us
By applying to them directly using the contact information
Via an experienced, specialist company like S3 Solutions
No matter what the reason is, the team at S3 Solutions can help guide you through the process of applying for your chosen charity grant. Whether it be sending you alerts on the latest charity grants and funding for individuals through FundReady, or giving you tailored advice on your application - we can support you every step of the way.
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