# Start-up Raiser launched to help small charities raise more funds - Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2025/10/01/start-up-raiser-launched-to-help-small-charities-raise-more-funds/ - Published: 2025-10-01T15:51:58+01:00 - Author: Howard Lake **A software platform designed to help the UK’s smallest charities secure funding from trusts and foundations has been launched.** [Raiser](http://raiser.uk) is a tool that helps small charities write stronger funding bids, demonstrate their impact and save valuable time. It has been created and developed by Buxton-based fundraiser and former small-charity CEO [Luke Wilkinson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilkinsonluke/) with the support of co-founder James Poulter, an AI and innovation expert. The concept grew directly from Wilkinson’s freelance work with small charities, but especially Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust, which was the first organisation to adopt his simple grant-fundraising system. Appropriately enough, the platform’s‘ global launch’ took place in Buxton, in its historic Pump Room at Buxton Crescent. ## Advertisement Raiser brought together around 20 leaders of local charities and community groups from in and around the High Peaks area. The event included a free grant-writing surgery as well as the option to trial the Raiser app. ![Luke Wilkinson at the launch of Raiser in Buxton pump room. A Raiser banner is behind him](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2025/10/luke-wilkinson-raiser-launch- 20250923.jpeg) Luke Wilkinson launches Raiser in Buxton The tool helps small charities write stronger funding bids, demonstrate their impact and save valuable time. “Small charities change lives every day. They deserve technology that actually works for them,” said Wilkinson. > “With Raiser we’re putting powerful AI tools into the hands of the people closest > to social problems—without the cost or complexity that usually keeps small organisations > out.” As such Raiser is now available to any small registered charity (under £1 million income per year) across the UK. ![Looking over a woman's shoulder at Raiser in use on screen at its launch event.]( https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2025/10/raiser-app-used-at-launch-20250923. jpeg) Raiser being used at its launch Recently [featured in _Fundraising Magazine_](https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/fundraising.html), Wilkinson believes that Raiser is the only UK platform built specifically for small charities. ![Headline and introduction to the back page of Fundraising Magazine, published by Civil Society Media.](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2025/10/9D3A9782-B08F- 4120-A197-9C8B8EDDEC7B_1_102_a.jpeg) Luke Wilkinson and James Poulter of Raiser featured on last month’s back-page Agent Provocateur in Fundraising Magazine (Civil Society Media) Raiser is a UK-built SaaS platform that helps small charities let their impact do the talking. Wilkinson explains that, rather than simply speeding up grant applications, it enables them to feed in real stories and evidence of the difference they make so that funders can see and support their impact-making activity, without making them fill out endless forms. By combining AI-driven impact storytelling with smart bid support, he added, “Raiser aims to become the go-to place for those serious about backing the smallest charities making the biggest difference”. ![James Poulter and Luke Wilkinson outside the Buxton Pump Room at the launch of Raiser](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2025/10/james-poulter-luke-wilkinson- raiser-launch-buxton.jpeg) James Poulter and Luke Wilkinson at the launch of Raiser in Buxton. ## ⏎ Challenges to seeking grants Raiser’s launch comes as the charity sector grapples with the opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence, and challenging behaviours from some grantmaking trusts, including large funders. Wilkinson argues that AI should shift the balance of power: > “Instead of charities spending endless hours feeding the old grant-application > machine, we can finally let the real stories of impact carry as much weight as > the spreadsheets. Raiser helps charities tell those stories—and helps funders > listen.” * **[Gilly’s offers small grants for small charities](https://fundraising.co.uk/2025/09/03/gillys-offers-small-grants-for-small-charities/)( 3 September 2025) * **[Funding opportunities in September 2025](https://fundraising.co.uk/2025/09/22/funding-opportunities-in-september-2025/)( 22 September 2025) * **[CharityJob to share £70,000 among small charities](https://fundraising.co.uk/2025/09/15/charityjob-to-share-70000-among-small-charities/)( 15 September 2025)**