Community funding opportunites

Grants

Grants are a financial contribution to a project that will not have to be paid back. When they are awarded, they are gifted to the recipient. Grants are usually awarded for a specific purpose and there will be guidelines on how the money can be spent. 

The Organisation that awards the grant will often request evidence that you are using the grant as intended, so they will set rules you need to follow to do this. You may also have to supply reports on how the money is being spent and any progress. 

There are different types of grants available to suit a wide range of needs, including: government grants, small business grants, disability facilities grants and repair and renovation grants to name just a few. 

Find government grants

Loans

A loan is a sum of money that is lent by one entity and borrowed by another. It is expected to be paid back, most of the time with interest.

For these loans, there will be an interest rate. The interest rate is the amount you are charged for borrowing money, usually a percentage of the total amount of the loan which may be affected by the time taken to pay the loan back. 

Donations 

By raising money via donations, you can raise money directly from your supporters, users and members of the community who may benefit from your project. This means you can raise a little from a lot of people to reach your goals or receive larger donations. The flexibility of this method of funding can make it very successful, and you may benefit from allowing donations of any size for this reason.  

There are many ways of raising donations, including social events such as coffee mornings or a sponsorship for an activity like a sponsored run, for example. The more fun and engaging the fundraising event, the more likely I is to be successful. 

Charities benefit from some extra benefits when fundraising by being able to reclaim ‘gift aid’ from the Government on all donations from UK taxpayers, which is worth an additional 25% on every donation.

As of July 2016, the Code of Fundraising Practice is set by the Fundraising Regulator. It outlines the standards expected of all charitable fundraising organisations across the UK.

Find more information on fundraising.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a method of fundraising usually carried out via online platforms. It involves pooling resources and networking to raise financial contributions to make a specific project happen.

First, a website page or profile on a website is set up. It is then typically promoted using networks such as social media, newsletters and word of mouth. Most projects will have a set target of an amount of money they aim to raise.  

There are four types of crowdfunding:

Reward-based: A business pre-sells a product or service to launch a project. This means they can access funding without incurring any debt since projects that are launched would compensate their investors with a pre-arranged product or service. 
Equity-based: The monetary contribution is in exchange for company equity or ownership, rather than goods and services.
Credit-based: Also described as ‘peer-to-peer lending’, this is usually used on a more personal level. It is a loan funded by multiple investors.
Debt-based: Money borrowed from an investor in exchange for interest.