Funding - Help with looking for funding and bidding

Finding funding for a project can be difficult and time consuming; yet it is often vital to your project. Luckily, there is lots of support and information out there for fundraisers.

Southampton Voluntary Services (SVS)
SVS is an organisation which works with voluntary and community groups in Southampton. They provide independent support and an independent voice. They can provide funding advice, training courses and limited advice on project development. They can help you write constitutions, policies and procedures, business plans and funding plans to ensure that you are fit to receive funding and able to meet your legal responsibilities. They can read through applications before you submit them and offer suggestions on how your application might be improved or on any information which is unclear or you have missed. They can help you identify partners to work with on your project.

For more information about SVS please visit their website. There is a link to SVS on the bottom of this page.

National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
The NCVO’s 'Sustainable Funding Project' encourages and enables voluntary and community organisations to adopt a 'rounded' approach to sustainable funding through:

• An understanding of the role planning and management play in sustainability,

• Income diversification – exploring a sustainable and diverse mix of income sources including donations, grants and earned income,

• Considering generating income through contractual work and trading goods and services,

• An awareness of the use of loans and other forms of finance as a catalyst to develop your organisation.

The NCVO have produced an excellent set of six advisory guides. These have been designed for small and medium-sized voluntary and community groups. The Introductory Pack on Funding and Finance consists of six guides covering:

• Sustainable Funding,

• Financial Management,

• Fundraising,

• Trading,

• Procurement and Contracting, and

• Loan finance.

They include case studies, tools, and signposts to resources to assist organisations in their search for long-term financial sustainability. Please visit the NVCO website for more information. Most of these are also available to borrow from the SVS resource library which is free for member organisations to use.