Trust Fundraiser

Skills for a trust fundraiser

Trust fundraisers need to have good research skills and experience. Information on grantmakers was for some time available in a small number of printed directories, which included contact details, giving policy, sample grants and recipients, and details of trustee meeting dates.

Some of these were then published on CD-ROM and then in searchable, online formats. Now, funding information can be gleaned from a wide range of sources, including blogs, Twitter feeds, and email newsletters. Funders themselves will now almost certainly publish details of their grantmaking criteria.

Trust fundraisers have always been able to use primary research tools, as well as the printed directories. Trusts’ details have been published in the Register of Charities by the Charity Commission (which covers England and Wales). It is now possible to search this information online, and thereby stay abreast of new grantmaking trusts that are created.

As a result, a number of specialist funding researchers help charities by taking on some or all of the trust fundraising research function. Some of these also make use of their personal and professional contacts to learn of other new grantmakers about to launch.

Making the ask of funders

Indeed, finding information about trusts is now comparatively straightforward. The real skill is in making effective applications. This means applying only to relevant trusts, at the right time, in the right format and asking for the right amount of money for the right project. It is too easy to write and send dozens or hundreds of similar applications in the hope that a few will respond with a grant. The larger trusts employ professional advisers and grantmakers: they also talk to each other, so a charity that wastes their time with poorly targeted appeals will probably become known to a range of grantmakers.

In some ways, applying to grantmakers is straightforward in that many of them explain how to do so. Given that, it is remarkable how many charities still make poor or incorrect applications.

Good research is at the heart of all good trust fundraising.