How to research a funder before you apply

Marc de Andrés · 25 September 2026 · 10 minute read

Over 14,000 UK grantmakers gave £24 billion in grants in 2024-25, yet only 356 funders publish their grants in the open 360Giving format: by our arithmetic, fewer than 3 in every 100. Many of the large national funders do publish there, among them Esmée Fairbairn, Garfield Weston and Paul Hamlyn (their funder pages on GrantNav), but for most of the smaller trusts, what they really pay for has to be read from their own guidance and their filed accounts.

Who publishes their grants openly

UK grantmakers giving in 2024-25

over 14,000

Funders publishing to 360Giving

356

UKGrantmaking 2026; 360Giving

Those figures come from UKGrantmaking, the national count of UK grants, and from 360Giving's own tally of the funders that publish to it; 360Giving is a charity that runs that open format, a shared way of releasing grants as open data, free for anyone to read and reuse.

This guide answers what a chief executive needs before their team spends a week on a bid: who gives the money, where each funder's record sits, what its rules say, how much to ask for, how long an answer takes, and when to walk away. It applies to a village hall and a national charity alike.

Every number here comes from a public page linked in the text, except 4 sums of our own, each marked "by our arithmetic"; national totals are from UKGrantmaking 2026, the rest from funders' own guidance, the charity regulators, sector bodies and a law firm's summary of the accounting rules, all opened again on 27 September 2026.

UK grantmakers gave £24 billion in 2024-25; among foundations, the largest 100 give much of it

91%

of family foundations' grantmaking comes from the 100 largest

UKGrantmaking 2026

Trusts and foundations, charities that exist to give money away, "distributed £8.4 billion in grants during 2024–25", which UKGrantmaking puts at "over one third of the overall grant amounts distributed", and they make up 13,438 of the organisations UKGrantmaking counts (UKGrantmaking, trusts and foundations).

Among family foundations, "the 100 largest family foundations represent 91% of the total estimated family foundations' grantmaking spend" (same page). Among general foundations, the largest 100 account for 45 per cent.

In our view, most charities need both the large funders and the smaller trusts on their list.

In our view, the typical grant is smaller than many boards expect. Across grants published as open data, "the median size of published grants has increased from £13,194 in 2023-24 to £19,635 in 2024-25", which UKGrantmaking says "reflects changes by the National Lottery Community Fund", whose Awards for All maximum rose to £20,000 (UKGrantmaking).

Competition is steep, so a bid not sent saves real time

In our view, few funders publish their odds; where they do, they can be long. 1 recent example: Lloyds Bank Foundation's Good Place to Live: New Beginnings fund, which closed to applications on 9 September 2026, says "We received nearly 600 applications" and "We will be making 40 to 50 grants" (Lloyds Bank Foundation): by our arithmetic, at best about 1 grant for every 12 applications.

So the cheapest bid is the one you never write. NCVO, the national body for voluntary organisations, puts it bluntly: "Never apply to a grant fund if your organisation does not meet these criteria" (NCVO).

What funders publish about their success rates, and what to do after a refusal, is the subject of why grant applications are rejected.

A funder's public record sits in 4 places

Its own website and guidance. Priorities, eligibility, what it will not fund, grant sizes, deadlines and how decisions are made. In our view, it outranks anything written about the funder elsewhere.

The charity register. Most UK funders are charities themselves: trusts and foundations are 91 per cent of the organisations UKGrantmaking profiles (its trusts and foundations page, above). The register for England and Wales can be searched "for free by charity name, number, date of registration or by where the charity operates", and it shows each charity's trustees, aims and finances (GOV.UK). Charities based in Scotland are listed by OSCR, and those in Northern Ireland by the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland.

Its filed accounts, the yearly financial statements and trustees' report that a charity in England and Wales must send to its regulator once its yearly income passes £25,000. Filed accounts can be downloaded free from the funder's page on the charity register, which lists them for "the last five financial periods" (Charity Commission register, a charity's accounts page).

Its published grants, for the 356 funders that publish them to 360Giving, the shared open-data format.

Only 356 funders publish their grants to 360Giving

360Giving's search tool, GrantNav, lets anyone "search, explore and download grants data published by UK funders" (GrantNav). On 25 September 2026 it held 1,521,169 grants from 356 funders to 454,096 recipient organisations. 360Giving says the tool is "easy and free to use" (360Giving).

For those 356 funders you can see who they actually paid, how much and for what, and often for how long: in our view, the most direct evidence of a funder's habits there is.

Publishing is patchy even among publishers: of the 46 accredited community foundations, "34 ... published their data using the 360Giving Data Standard, but only 26 of these had done so for the 2024-25 financial year" (UKGrantmaking, methodology). And UKGrantmaking states plainly: "Not all grantmakers publish their data using the 360Giving Data Standard" (same page). So, in our view, when a funder is missing from GrantNav, or its data stops 2 years ago, that tells you nothing about whether it funds work like yours.

For every other funder, the filed accounts are the record

A charity with income over £25,000 must send its trustees' annual report and accounts to the Charity Commission (GOV.UK, threshold changes). Both are uploaded with the charity's annual return, which is due no later than 10 months after the charity's year closes (GOV.UK, annual return), so, by our arithmetic, the newest accounts on file may describe a year that closed almost 2 years ago. Treat them as history, and look on the funder's website for anything newer.

What the accounts reveal depends on their type:

Full accounts (called accruals accounts, which record income and spending when it is earned or owed, not only when cash moves) must say something about the grants made. Under the charity accounting rules, where the total a funder gives 1 organisation is material, meaning large enough to matter in its total spending, that organisation "would usually be identified in the accounts", and where a funder withholds recipients' names it must still give "the number, total value and general purpose of the grants" (Wedlake Bell, a law firm's summary of the rules in force from 1 January 2026; accounts filed for earlier years follow the previous rules).

Simple receipts-and-payments accounts, allowed for smaller unincorporated charities and CIOs (not charitable companies), show money in and out with far less detail. The ceiling for them rises from an income of £250,000 to £500,000 for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026 (GOV.UK, threshold changes). In our view, some trusts between those 2 sizes may therefore publish less detail than before.

In Scotland, OSCR has been adding to its register "from 9 March 2026, including charity trustee names and accounts documents" (OSCR).

The funder's own rules rule many charities out before anyone writes

In our view, read eligibility first: it settles the question fastest. Funders' hard limits differ widely:

A minimum size. Esmée Fairbairn Foundation lists among those it cannot fund "Organisations with a turnover of less than £100,000 (as reflected in the latest set of accounts)" (Esmée Fairbairn).

A track record. Garfield Weston Foundation supports "charities that have at least one year's worth of annual accounts" (Garfield Weston guidelines, April 2026).
A size for larger grants. For the same foundation's grants of £100,000 and over, "your organisation must either have an annual income of over £1 million, or your total project or capital costs must be over £1 million" (same guidelines).

What it will not pay for. Esmée Fairbairn lists "capital costs including building work, renovations and equipment" among its exclusions (its apply page, above).

Take a charity with an income of about £400,000. On these published rules it clears Esmée Fairbairn's £100,000 floor, and it can ask Garfield Weston for a grant under £100,000 once it has a year of accounts, but not for that foundation's core cost grants of £100,000 and over, which need an annual income of at least £1 million.

Read the exclusions as carefully as the priorities: 1 breach can sink a bid that fits the cause.

Ask for what the funder usually gives, which depends on who it is

Typical grants range widely:

Small local grants. Community foundations, charities that give grants in 1 area, report that "£5,500 was the average size of our grants" in 2024-25 (UK Community Foundations). National Lottery Awards for All in England gives "£300 to £20,000" (The National Lottery Community Fund).

Mid-sized and multi-year grants. Lloyds Bank Foundation's New Beginnings fund, now closed, offered "up to £200,000, over four years", unrestricted, meaning it can pay for any cost that serves the charity's purpose (its fund page, above).
Large grants. Esmée Fairbairn says "the minimum amount we offer is £30,000 and we have no maximum amount", and most of its grants run for 3 to 5 years (its apply page, above).

Some funders size the grant against you rather than the project. Garfield Weston says of its core cost grants, grants towards the everyday running of a charity: "we generally support around 10-20% of an organisation's total annual budget" (its guidelines, above). For a charity spending £400,000 a year, that is, by our arithmetic, £40,000 to £80,000, not the whole budget.

In our view, an ask far outside a funder's usual range tells it you have not read its guidance.

At 4 large funders, a decision takes from 16 weeks to 8 months, so ask well ahead

How long a decision takes, in months

National Lottery Awards for All England (a single stated time)

16 weeks

Paul Hamlyn Foundation

4 to 6 months

Garfield Weston, under £100,000

4–6 months

Esmée Fairbairn, a successful application from first form to award

6 to 8 months

The funders' own pages, read 25 September 2026

Published timetables vary, and they shape your cash flow:

National Lottery Awards for All England: "A decision in: 16 weeks".
Paul Hamlyn Foundation: "Generally, our funds take four to six months from application to decision" (Paul Hamlyn Foundation).
Garfield Weston, grants under £100,000: the foundation aims "to get back to you with our decision within 4–6 months".

Esmée Fairbairn: for a successful application, from Expression of Interest to award, the process can take "between six to eight months for most applications"; it answers an Expression of Interest "within four to six weeks" (Esmée Fairbairn FAQs).

In our view, with waits of up to 8 months, a post that must start in April may need its bids sent the summer before.

A rushed application can cost you a year

Some funders limit how soon you may try again. Garfield Weston says that after trustees consider a proposal, "you will be unable to make another application until at least 12 months have passed from the date of the outcome email" (its guidelines, above). Esmée Fairbairn accepts a fresh application after a refusal, provided "the new application should not be for the same work and costs" (its FAQs, above).

So an unready bid is not a harmless try: it can close that door for a year.

Some funders invite you; others want a conversation first

The Tudor Trust says "We do not have a traditional, written application process", and that "we take time before inviting individual organisations to apply" (Tudor Trust). In our view, with funders like this, the work is being known to them over time, through your results and your reputation, not filling in a form.

Others ask to hear from you first:

City Bridge Foundation lets applicants "book a pre-application call" when rounds are open (City Bridge Foundation).
The Henry Smith Foundation, for its Together We Begin fund, says "we encourage you to contact us before submitting your Expression of Interest", the short first form some funders use before a full application (Henry Smith Foundation).

Others cannot take calls: Esmée Fairbairn says it does not "normally offer calls before Expressions of Interest are submitted due to the limited capacity of the Team", and holds "pre-application Q&A webinars throughout the year" instead (its FAQs, above). Where a call is offered, take it; where it is not, do not press for it.

Funders that commit to openness promise clear priorities and timetables

More than 140 grantmakers have signed IVAR's 8 commitments to open and trusting grantmaking (IVAR); IVAR is a research charity that works with funders. Among the commitments, funders promise to "explain our funding priorities clearly" and to "publish and stick to our timetables" (IVAR, the commitments). In our view, their pages are quicker to research.

Directories help you find funders; the funder's own pages settle the facts

To draw up a first list, GrantNav is free, several free and paid funding directories exist, and your local community foundation is itself a funder worth a look.

A directory entry is someone else's summary, and funders change their rules, so check every fact on the funder's own site.

Good research shows your board which bids are worth the team's week

In our view, for a chief executive, good research means every funder on the list has been checked against its own published rules, its usual grant size and its timetable, so the board sees which bids are worth the team's week and which are not.

If you are deciding who should do this work, bid writer, consultant or agency compares the options.