6 Resources That Help Charities Secure More Grant Income

Securing grant funding depends on far more than a well-crafted written submission. Funders are making a broader judgement about the organisation behind the application — whether it is credible, financially sound, properly governed, and realistically capable of delivering on its stated outcomes.

Charities that regularly succeed in competitive funding rounds tend to have built the infrastructure that makes this credibility tangible. They can generate accurate financial reports quickly, substantiate their impact with data rather than stories, and present their organisation in a way that instils funder confidence well before any formal meeting. The following six tools directly support these capabilities.

1. Sage Intacct: Fund Accounting and Financial Management

Before awarding funding, grant makers scrutinise how a charity handles its finances. The ability to produce precise financial reports showing income and expenditure by fund, demonstrate responsible stewardship of previously restricted grants, and present a well-reasoned budget with transparent financial assumptions has become a standard expectation among serious funders — not an advantage.

Sage Intacct is designed around the fund accounting principles central to charity finance, making it practical to monitor spending against individual grants, generate the financial reports funders require both at application stage and throughout the grant period, and uphold the governance standards that give funders confidence. Charities that cannot present clear fund-level financial information are at a material disadvantage before a single sentence of their application has been considered.

Why it matters: Financial credibility is assessed at every stage of the grant relationship, not only when applying. The right financial system makes that credibility consistently apparent.

2. Benevity: Corporate Fundraising and Giving Platform

A number of institutional funders view established corporate partnerships favourably, treating them as both external validation and evidence of a diversified income base. Benevity is a corporate social responsibility and workplace giving platform used by hundreds of large companies to administer their charitable giving programmes, employee volunteering, and community investment activity.

Having a charity listed and actively engaged on Benevity opens access to corporate giving budgets that many organisations are currently not reaching, while the corporate relationships formed through the platform provide the kind of broader stakeholder support that grant makers regard as reassuring.

Why it matters: Corporate funding relationships signal external credibility and income diversification — both of which strengthen a charity's standing in competitive grant rounds.

3. Eventbrite: Event Management and Community Engagement Platform

Funders focused on community or place-based work — and many others — often want concrete evidence that an organisation is genuinely embedded within and trusted by the communities it serves. Engagement demonstrated through events, public workshops, consultations, and community gatherings represents some of the strongest available evidence of this, and it must be quantified and documented to be of practical use in an application.

Eventbrite offers a straightforward platform for organising and promoting events, and it automatically produces attendance records and registration data that can be referenced directly in grant applications and funder reports as measurable evidence of community reach.

Why it matters: Quantified evidence of community engagement carries increasing weight with funders committed to participatory approaches. Eventbrite generates that evidence automatically, as a natural output of events the charity would be running regardless.

4. Impact Mapper: Impact Measurement and Reporting Platform

The move toward outcomes-based funding has gathered considerable pace in recent years. Grant makers are increasingly asking not merely whether activities occurred, but whether they produced measurable changes in the lives of the people or communities the charity exists to serve. Organisations that take a systematic, data-driven approach to impact measurement are assessed very differently from those relying primarily on anecdotal evidence and case studies.

Impact Mapper is a dedicated impact measurement platform that enables charities to design measurement frameworks, gather outcome data, and produce the kind of evidenced impact reports that funders are now routinely expecting at application stage, at interim reviews, and at grant close.

Why it matters: Demonstrable impact is no longer a point of difference in competitive grant rounds — it is a baseline requirement. A structured approach supported by a dedicated platform meets that requirement reliably.

5. Canva for Nonprofits: Design and Communications Platform

Every piece of communication a charity sends contributes to the impression a funder forms of the organisation — including the presentation quality of application documents, annual reports, and supporting materials. A charity whose work is represented through polished, consistent, and clearly designed materials conveys that it takes communication seriously and understands the value of presenting its cause with care.

Canva for Nonprofits gives registered charities access to Canva's professional design platform free of charge, enabling them to produce genuinely professional application documents, impact reports, and funder presentations without a design budget or an in-house designer.

Why it matters: Strong presentation does not secure grants by itself, but weak presentation can introduce doubts that undermine an otherwise compelling application. Canva for Nonprofits eliminates that risk at no cost to the charity.

6. Salesforce Nonprofit: Donor and Stakeholder CRM

Institutional grant makers are generally more inclined to support organisations that can point to broad stakeholder backing rather than dependence on any single funder. A charity with a growing individual donor base, active corporate relationships, and documented community support represents a more resilient model than one relying almost entirely on institutional grant income.

Salesforce Nonprofit is a CRM platform built specifically for the charity sector that allows organisations to manage relationships with donors, volunteers, corporate supporters, and beneficiaries within a single system. The data it captures — on supporter growth, retention rates, and engagement levels — is directly relevant in applications that ask about income diversification and community roots.

Why it matters: Demonstrable stakeholder support and income diversification carry growing weight in competitive grant assessment. A well-maintained CRM makes this evidence readily accessible when it is needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much weight do grant makers give to a charity's filed accounts? Considerable weight. Most funders review a charity's most recently filed accounts as part of their due diligence process, examining reserves levels, the spread of income sources, major expenditure lines, and whether the accounts carry any audit qualifications or emphases of matter. Accounts that are submitted late, contain qualifications, or reveal financial patterns that prompt concern can substantially reduce the likelihood of a successful application — regardless of the strength of the written case. Filing accurate and timely accounts is a fundamental obligation, not a box-ticking exercise.

What reserves position do funders generally expect to see? Expectations differ between funders, but most want to see that the charity holds a documented reserves policy, that trustees have given considered thought to an appropriate level, and that the current position can be explained clearly. In many cases, the quality of governance thinking behind the reserves position and the ability to articulate it in a funding conversation matters as much as the specific figure itself.

Can smaller charities compete meaningfully against larger organisations in open grant rounds? Yes — particularly where the funder is actively seeking to support smaller or community-led organisations. For smaller charities, the priority is ensuring that the rigour of their financial management, governance, and impact evidence is appropriate to their scale while remaining genuinely robust. A well-organised small charity with clear fund-level financial records and a systematic approach to impact data will regularly outperform larger organisations with weaker governance in rounds designed for their profile.

How should a charity approach a due diligence visit from a funder? A site visit provides an opportunity to demonstrate in person what the written application could only describe. Being prepared to walk through financial management processes, show how impact is tracked, and introduce key staff — and, where possible, beneficiaries — reinforces the written case substantially. The finance lead should be ready to demonstrate the systems in place for fund accounting and grant reporting, which is an area where Sage Intacct's clear fund-level reporting proves especially useful.

What is the most frequently cited avoidable reason that strong charities are turned down for grants? Weak financial presentation is the most consistently reported avoidable failure. This covers accounts that do not make clear how restricted funds have been managed, budgets that lack a logical connection to the charity's financial history, and difficulty explaining the financial model of a proposed project with confidence and precision. Financial management systems that produce clear, accurate, fund-level reporting address this problem directly.