Insights
Practical, founder-led guidance to help your CIC, charity or social enterprise become more structured, more credible and genuinely fundable.
Funders are more oversubscribed than ever. The organisations winning grants in 2026 aren't the ones with the best ideas — they're the ones who understand the new rules. Here's the framework.
How much should your charity keep in reserve? Calculate what is freely available, set a risk-based target and write a policy that trustees and funders can understand.
Show what your grant achieved, how the money was used and what you learned. A practical reporting guide for UK charities, CICs and social enterprises.
A clear grant budget shows what delivery really costs, how you calculated each line and how the funding will be used. Here is a practical UK guide for charities, CICs and social enterprises.
Corporate support is more than a sponsorship logo. Learn how to find the right businesses, qualify opportunities and build a credible ask for funding, skills and long-term partnership.
Social investment can fund growth, assets and contract delivery — but it must be repaid. Here is how to decide if it fits, prepare your numbers and approach investors with confidence.
Core funding gives a charity room to deliver well, invest in people and plan beyond the next project. Here is how to make a strong case for unrestricted support.
A strong case for support is the story underneath every successful funding conversation. Here is the seven-part structure, template and checklist to make yours clear, credible and worth backing.
"How do you measure your impact?" decides more funding applications than any other question. Here's a measurement system you can run with a spreadsheet, a survey and one hour a month.
Applications aren't rejected because the writing is bad — they're rejected because the thinking is unclear. Here's how assessors actually read your form, and how to win each section.
The best theories of change are the simplest. Here's what funders are really checking for, the mistakes that sink most attempts, and a five-sentence framework to build a clear one.
There are thousands of UK grant funders — the problem isn't finding money, it's finding the right money. Here's the full funding landscape, the search tools that work, and a four-step system for building a funder pipeline.
Contracts can turn unpredictable income into real stability — but they're won long before the tender appears. Here's how social enterprises become the commissioner's safe, obvious choice.
The difference between surviving and scaling is rarely talent. It's planning. Here's how to build a funding mix, manage a pipeline, and stop lurching from one grant to the next.
After enough time on funding panels, you stop seeing a hundred reasons for rejection and start seeing the same seven. Here they are — and how to fix each one before you apply.
Funding is the result. Fundability is the cause. Here are the five areas every funder assesses, why good projects fail the test, and how to close the gap and become repeat-fundable.
Most applications describe what an organisation does, not what changes because of it. Here's why funders buy outcomes, not activity — and how to measure your impact without a research team.
On grant assessment panels, the strongest projects were almost always the easiest to explain. Here's why clarity wins funding — and a simple framework to explain your project in one sentence, one paragraph and one page.
A great idea isn't enough. Funders don't reject your vision — they reject the risk attached to it. Here's how funders really assess risk, and how to close the gaps.
Most founders treat funding as a transaction. The ones who consistently win treat it as a relationship. Here's how to become known and trusted before you ever submit an application.