Funding Advice Bureau 


SYFAB guide to... 
Fundraising for 
projects 

Generally, funders want to see the tangible results of what 
their money has paid for so they can see what their funding 
achieves (and feel good about it). So when you apply for a 
grant, you should plan your work accordingly because it is 
easier to raise money for something specific. 

This is more straightforward to show when you need money 
for capital items like equipment or building refurbishments 
because the funding will be paying for something physical. 
But for many groups, the main need is for ongoing revenue 
for things like rent, salaries, electricity bills etc. The good 
news is, you can get funding for revenue costs by thinking 
creatively about what to ask for. You need to think about 
funding for your services rather than for your running costs. 
You should break your work down into specific projects or 
services and apply for funding for fixed term, measurable 
pieces of work. 

What is a project? 

A project is a discrete piece of work with clear aims 
and outcomes that can be measured. The work of your 
organisation could be divided into projects which might be 
new pieces of work; or a development of an existing piece 
of work; or the repackaging of existing work. 

For example, an advice centre could break down its work 
into projects like this: 

• Debt advice project, employing two specialist advisers 
• Running a volunteer scheme, including training 
and expenses 
• Legal advice project, employing one specialist adviser. 
Costing your projects 

Packaging your work up into projects allows you to 
better match your work to funders’ criteria. It allows 
you to seek funding for ongoing work that you repackage 
into ‘new’ projects. And it allows you to package up your 
organisation’s general running costs (core costs) with 
the direct costs of delivering activities into one 
fundable project. 

In the example above, none of the advice centre’s projects 
could take place without the organisation paying for: 

• A fully equipped office, including computers 
• Office running costs 
• An administrator 
• A manager 
• Insurances. 

But those sorts of core general running costs are far less 
attractive to funders since they don’t have obvious tangible 
community benefits. So, the advice centre would look to 
package up its activities into projects. The organisation 
would then produce a budget for each project that covers: 

• the direct costs of running the project, such as staff 
costs, equipment, publicity, volunteer expenses, and; 
• the indirect costs needed for the project and 
organisation to run, such as management time, 
insurance, rent, utilities. Costs like these are known as 
overheads, core costs, or general running costs. 
Ideally, each project budget would include a percentage 
of the indirect costs in proportion to the amount of ‘core’ 
resources the project takes up. This is known as full 
cost recovery. 

By fundraising like this, each project looks more attractive 
to funders since it has specific outcomes that benefi t the 
community. And if you are successful in fundraising for a 
project, the funding will pay towards the less attractive but 
necessary core costs of the organisation. 

When you include a share of your general running costs 
in your project budget, the amount you allocate must 
be a sensible and realistic figure that you can justify. 
For example, if the project represents 20% of your total 
staff time then it would be reasonable to expect it to 
contribute 20% of the rent and other running costs. 

Funders are getting better at funding the indirect costs of 
projects as well as the direct costs, but within limits. Some 
funders and commissioners only want to pay for the direct 
costs of your activities. If you are offered funding that will 
only pay for direct costs, you will have to make a decision 
about whether you think you will be able to raise the (less 
‘fundable’) general running costs from elsewhere. Bearing 
this in mind, if you do receive any unrestricted funding (that 
your organisation can use for any purpose), you should 
always put it towards the costs that are most diffi cult to 
fundraise for, i.e. your core costs. 

Packaging your work into projects allows you to be creative 
in presenting your work in different ways to different 
funders. This re-packaging of your work allows you to better 
match your aims and outcomes to the aims and outcomes 
that a funder wants to achieve, and improves your chances 
of success. As with all fundraising, you need to strike a 
balance between what you want to do, and what a funder 
will pay for. 


South Yorkshire Funding 
Advice Bureau 
The Workstation 
15 Paternoster Row 
Sheffield S1 2BX 

Tel: 0114 249 4343 
Email: enquiries@syfab.org.uk 
Website: www.syfab.org.uk 

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request. Please get in touch to discuss your needs. 

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groups. No permission is needed for limited reproduction if SYFAB 
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must have written permission from SYFAB. 

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talk to any member of staff, or contact us by post, phone, 
fax or email. 

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All rights reserved. Version 1