# Pressures on grantmaking trust staff

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/1998/09/14/pressures-grantmaking-trust-staff/
- Published: 1998-09-14T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

It is pretty galling to make an application to a grant-making trust and never to
hear back from them. No acknowledgement, no “thank you but we can’t help”, or even
a “maybe next year.” As most trust fundraisers know, this is part of the job. Responses
are only generated from a few per cent of trusts applied to.
Research from the Association
of Charitable Foundations has now put this phenomenon in some perspective. ACF found
that only 300 out of 8,800 grant-making trusts had paid staff. It is not surprising
then that few trusts have the capacity to respond to all applications. Even those
with paid staff are often unable to reply to all letters, even appropriate and well-
targeted appeals.

 * **[Grants from the US](https://fundraising.co.uk/1998/09/17/grants-us/)** (17
   September 1998)
 * **[Good idea](https://fundraising.co.uk/1998/09/22/good-idea/)** (22 September
   1998)
 * **[One-person fundraising](https://fundraising.co.uk/1998/09/29/oneperson-fundraising/)**(
   29 September 1998)

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