Where do I start?

In addition to getting a job and trying to save as much money from that as you can, there are three main ways of getting funds together for your project:

• Apply to a trust for a grant.
• Apply to your school or a community business.
• Hold fundraising events.

What are educational trusts?

There are about 4,400 grant-making trusts in the UK, which exist to provide £1.7bn in grants each year. The world’s largest trust is the Wellcome Trust, which specialises in medical research. About 1000 of these are educational trusts, dispensing £300m each year. Each trust has a specific remit – it may seek to assist people intending to do a specific type of work, or of a particular age group, or from a certain geographical location. However, it is highly likely that there will be a trust suitable for your situation. Trusts tend to favour those with limited economic needs, but it is always worth applying.

What national guides are there to help me?

Your first step should be to visit your local library or bookshop in order to get a copy of one of the following books:

Charities Digest 2011 (published by Waterlow Professional Publishing - ISBN 978 - 1857831438, £37.50) lists 1200 charities and full lists of Citizens Advice Bureaux and Law Centres (who will advise individuals in need), Councils for Voluntary Service, Rural Community Councils, and Federations of Community Associations (which advise and support charities), and Volunteer Centres (who will find local volunteering opportunities).

Directory of Grant Making Trusts 2010 - 2011 (published by Directory of Social Change - ISBN 978 - 1906294342, £125.00).

Educational Grants Directory 2009 - 2010 (published by Directory of Social Change - ISBN 978 - 1906294311, £50.00)

The Grants Register 2011: The Complete Guide to Postgraduate funding WorldWide) (published by Palgrave Macmillan - ISBN 978 - 0230206014, £210.00). Over 1,100 awarding bodies provide information on over 4,200 awards. Information on subject areas, levels of study, eligibility and value of awards. Details of application procedures and closing dates.

What regional guides are there to help me?

You may feel that you want to apply directly to a trust in your local area. If so, one of these should be of use:

London - A Guide to Local Trusts in Greater London 2008-09, ISBN 978 1 906294 00 7, £40.00 plus p&p.

Midlands - A Guide to Local Trusts in the Midlands 2008-09, ISBN 978 1 906294 01 4, £40.00 plus p&p.

Northern Ireland - http://www.grant-tracker.org/knowledgebase/statutory-grant-makers-northern-ireland for a guide to Northern Ireland funders.  http://govfundingdbni.nics.gov.uk/gfdpublic/Home.aspx Government Grants to the Voluntary and Community Sector.

North of England - A Guide to Local Trusts in the North 2008/09,  ISBN 978 1 906294 02 1, £40.00 plus p&p. The North East Guide to Grants for Individuals database, created by Funding Information North East, available to order online at www.fine.org.uk from £50.00 for a single licence.

Scotland – Scottish Directory of Funding for Third Sector Organisations 2011 is published by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, available at http://www.scvo.org.uk/information/publications/  £20.00 for SCVO Members (£25.00 for non-members) The website includes details of charitable trusts that give to individuals.

South of England - A Guide to Local Trusts in the South 2008/09, ISBN 978 1 906294 03 8, £40.00 plus p&p.

Wales - Arweiniad Cyllido Cymru, the Welsh funding guide, ISBN 978 1 903991 60 2, £35.00 plus p&p.

Except where an alternative publisher is stated, all the above are available from Directory of Social Change.

How do I write an application?

Find the most relevant trusts and contact them for a leaflet and application form. Read the leaflet to discover their core criteria for making grants and ensure you apply to the most relevant one. If it only makes grants to people from a deprived background, and you are not, then do not apply, as it will be a waste of time. Find about a dozen trusts which are suitable for you, and then fill in the application form for each, carefully tailoring each form to the requirements of the specific trust.

It is crucial that your application is serious, consistent and well thought-out. If, on the other hand, you come across as vague and contradictory, you're unlikely to be successful. To assist you, here are sample good and bad letters:

Dear Mr Thomson,
Re: Application for funding
I am writing to request funding from your trust to enable me to take part in a voluntary project for Support the World next July and August in Romania. The organisation runs a TEFL programme in Bucharest and I have been selected to spend six weeks next summer teaching English to primary school-aged children. I have already raised £600 to cover my food and accommodation costs while I will be away through a sponsored 10 mile swimathon and savings from my job as a waiter. However, I will not be able to raise any more funds as I shall be concentrating on working for exams, which I am taking in June. I am therefore writing to you to fund the cost of my airline ticket of £200.

Dear Sir,
I would like to go abroad next summer and so I am writing to ask you to pay for it. I would like to help other people if possible and I was told that you may be able to help. I am interested in volunteering in eastern Europe, possibly in Romania. I would like you to grant me £200, in order to help me do this.

The first extract is clearly better than the second. Here are some useful guidelines to writing an application letter:

• Personalise the letter. Find out the name of the person you need to write to and address them directly.
• Say exactly what you intend to do during your voluntary project, where you will do it and why. Say what organisation you are working for. Explain exactly how this grant will help your work.
• Be specific. Do not simply ask for a £500 grant. Explain that you need £200 for a flight, £200 living expenses and £100 for further travel costs. You will look far more professional if you explain exactly what the money is for.
• Give details of all other methods you have used to raise funds – by getting a job, by holding a charity sale, for example. This will ensure that you look as if you are thoroughly committed to getting the money.
• Include all your contact details.

The three most important rules when writing your application are:

• Choose carefully. Only apply to a trust which has helped someone like you in the past.
• Ensure that, when the trust reads your application, every detail they read would get the answer "yes" to this question: "Would assisting this person fulfil our criteria as a trust and uphold our reputation?"
• Ensure that you apply for funds well in advance. Many trusts will only offer grants to one in four applications so make sure you don’t lose out by applying too late.

Who do trusts help?

In terms of who they help, there are six different types of trust. Therefore, if you approach a trust which helps people from a certain religious group or of a certain disability, there is no point applying unless you specifically fit their criteria.

• Age related 35%
• Disabled people (including people with medical conditions) 25%
• Socio-economic 15%
• Religious/denominational 12%
• Gender/relationship 11%
• Ethnicity 3%

Information from Patterns of Independent Grant-making in the UK, 2000, published by Charities Aid Foundation.

Example trusts:

• The Helena Kennedy Bursary Scheme encourages "social inclusion and widening participation in further and higher education". It awards one-off annual bursaries of £1000 to individual students. The charity is named after Baroness Kennedy QC and supports the recommendations made in her 1997 report 'Learning Works'. Please go to www.hkbs.org.uk.
• The Prince’s Trust helps young people aged between 14 and 30 years old. It distributes a number of awards to enable young people to improve their circumstances through training, education and development of life skills. For an application form, telephone 0800 842 842 or go to www.princes-trust.org.uk
• The Jack Petchey Foundation is a grant-making trust which offers sponsorship of £200 to young people (aged 11 to 25) who are undertaking voluntary projects. The Foundation will sponsor gap year projects as well as fundraising events, such as a swimathon, sponsored cycle ride or marathon. The scheme is open to any young people who live in East London or West Essex. For further information, please go to www.jackpetcheyfoundation.org.uk.

Who else can I approach?

If you are still at school or college or have just left, it is a good idea to find out if there are any funds available there. Many schools will have funds available for worthwhile projects undertaken by current or former pupils and may be willing to help. Contact the Bursar or a member of the finances team for further information.
Similarly, organisations and businesses in the local community may be able to help you. Some businesses will have foundations, which are grant-giving trusts attached to the profit-making organisation. The principles are the same as for writing to a trust: identify one which is relevant to you and your volunteering, and write the letter taking into account their criteria for making grants.

How else can I raise funds?

Every year, thousands of people hold fundraising events. It is astonishing how helpful the local community can be in helping you to raise money for a useful cause. Here are examples of the main types of event:

• Charity concert. Nikki Berry from Harrogate raised £900 from a concert for her volunteering placement on her gap year to India. She organised a choir and string quartets to play at her local church and managed to get her picture on the front page of the weekend section of six local newspapers.
• Bring and buy sale. Get lots of friends and neighbours to give you unwanted books, videos and ornaments and hold a bring and buy sale.
• Quiz night. Many pubs have upstairs rooms which you may be able to hire for free to hold a quiz night or social event. The pub will be happy to co-operate provided that you can guarantee either a certain number of people to turn up or a certain amount spent at the bar. You can charge each person a small amount to gain entry in order to raise funds.
• Sponsored sporting event. You could run a marathon, or go abseiling or do a swimathon. In each case, you get friends, family and other benevolent people to sponsor your event. For example, you might ask people to sponsor you £1 for every mile you run of your marathon, so that you have a real incentive to complete the race.

Choose an event that is most suitable for you. Whatever you decide, make sure you get publicity. Phone up your local paper and tell them about your event, send them a press release and get them to write an article before your event, so that as many people can attend the event as possible. This is bound to increase the funds that you raise.

Useful websites

www.access-funds.co.uk/directories - Grants information for the British charitable and not-for-profit sector. 
www.acf.org.uk – You can download copies of the Association of Charitable Foundations advice leaflets, facts and figures about trusts and foundations, as well as links to trust and foundation websites.
www.avso.org - Association of Voluntary Service Organisations. 
www.dsc.org.uk – Directory of Social Change 
www.funderfinder.org.uk - Funderfinder has a free guide to writing letters of application, Apply Yourselves, which is available on their website. There is also a version giving details of trusts giving to individuals in need. Details from 65 Raglan Road, Leeds LS2 9DZ. Tel: 0113 243 3008. Fax: 0113 243 2966. 
www.maccvol.btinternet.co.uk/youth2.htm - Funding trusts for volunteers 
www.scholarship-search.org.uk - Scholarship Search. 
www.support4learning.org.uk - Supported by Higher Education and Research Opportunities.

Contact details of useful organisations:

• The Association of Charitable Foundations - The ACF has over 300 members who give over £1.3 billion every year. Its two largest members are the the Community Fund (£300 million - one fifth share of the net proceeds of the National Lottery) and the Wellcome Trust (£400 million devoted to medical research and the history of medicine). Association of Charitable Foundations 2 Plough Yard Shoreditch High Street London EC2A 3LP Web: www.acf.org.uk
• The British Council - The Education and Training Section of the British Council has information about courses, work experience in the UK and abroad, exchange visits overseas and programmes for adult learners. They have information about grants, scholarships and other sources of funding for all of these. The British Council runs a Youth Millennium Awards scheme, which helps young people to improve their local communities. It is open to any British resident aged between 18 and 30. The award scheme is open to the initiative and interest of young people in any community action project; applicants are requested to put forward their own international project for consideration.
  The scheme supports activities such as learning or undertaking training which will improve skills in community work, or representing the local community. The core grant for each award is £1500. This covers preparatory costs, travel, daily subsistence, and follow-up activities.
  British Council Education & Training Group 10 Spring Gardens London SW1A 2BN Tel:020 7389 4383 www.britishcouncil.org
• Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) King’s Hill West Malling Kent ME19 4TA Tel: 01732 52000 Fax: 01732 52001 e-mail: enquiries@CAFonline.org or visit the website www.cafonline.org
• Directory of Social Change 24 Stephenson Way London NW1 2DP Tel: 020 7209 5151 Fax: 020 7209 4804 Email: books@dsc.org.uk Web: www.dsc.org.uk
• EGAS - The Educational Grants Advisory Service. EGAS primarily assists students who cannot receive statutory funding, with priority to lone parents, the disabled, refugees, and people from under-privileged backgrounds or in exceptional circumstances. EGAS can advise on possible sources of funding. You will need to send a SAE and in return EGAS will send you an information form to complete. The Educational Grants Advisory Service 501-505 Kingsland Road London E8 4AU Tel: 020 7254 6251 E-mail: egas.enquiry@fwa.org.uk or visit the website www.egason-line.org
• Rotary clubs Rotary is a global network of service volunteers. It is the world's largest service organisation for business and professional people. There are 1835 Rotary clubs in the UK. To find your local Rotary club, which may be able to help you, please go to http://www.rotary-ribi.org/3_dist/districts.htm
• Round Table is a community-based organisation, with 1000 local organisations in the UK. Please go to http://www.roundtable.co.uk

To return to the landing page and explore the corporate services WWV has to offer, please click here.