Introduction / Overview

The Need for Funds,
and the Need for Information
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Introduction

 The search for funds for charitable causes is becoming ever more difficult. Everyday throughout Hertfordshire, and indeed throughout the UK, an enormous amount of time and effort goes into seeking funds, so that:
  • sufficient resources are available for existing, valuable work to continue
  • new projects can be undertaken to benefit people in new ways
  • new groups can be established to meet the needs of a larger number of people
  • individual people and families can receive the urgent help they need
Many local charities are required to put considerable staff and volunteer resources into seeking the funds they need to develop or expand their work in the local community, or simply to keep it going, at a time when the demands on their services grow year by year.

Meanwhile, there are many people in both the statutory and voluntary sectors who find themselves trying to find money for individual clients whose circumstances and needs, though urgent, are such that they fall outside the scope of statutory provision.

Information about possible sources of funds is contained in a wide variety of places. Most, however, is national in scope, with the result that only a small proportion of the sources listed may be relevant. Moreover, with so many organisations already inundated with applications, the chances of success may very often be slim, at best.

However, there is a lot of money available to meet local needs in Hertfordshire - if only you know where to look!

This includes:
  • many of the charitable trusts based in Hertfordshire to whom, by definition, only local people and charities are eligible to apply
  • many organisations based in the County, such as companies and trusts, where a Hertfordshire cause has a greater chance of being supported, by virtue of being local
  • charitable trusts elsewhere in the UK with specific remits to benefit individual people in particular circumstances
  • national bodies, of which the various Lottery funds are perhaps the most well known example, which very consciously aim to ensure that people in all parts of the UK benefit - and that includes Hertfordshire!

The aim of this Guide is essentially to point out where some of these funds can be found, in the hope that more money will reach more local charities and people in need, more easily.

We hope that it will not only save time and effort for grantseekers, but also, if used carefully, benefit grantmakers, as they have to deal with fewer inappropriate applications, while coming across more of the kinds of causes they are most keen to support. If, at the same time, more money from the various Lottery funds and elsewhere comes to Hertfordshire, so much the better.
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Background:
How the Hertfordshire Funding Guide site came into existence.

 In 1995 the then Hertfordshire Community Trust (now of course a Foundation), with support from Hertfordshire County Council and the Rural Development Commission, produced “the Guide to Grantmaking Trusts in Hertfordshire”. This was a basic printed guide designed as its Introduction explains to provide “information about sources of charitable funds available to local community groups, individuals in need and local authorities and advice agencies who are seeking to help them”.

It was based on the records of the Charity Commission, who at that time were also concerned to encourage greater awareness of local charities, many set up more than a century ago.

The 1995 Guide concentrated exclusively on locally based grantmaking trusts. Although many were found to be very small, it proved helpful, for example, in cases where a small village trust was found which could give just the kind of help that someone was seeking.

It also proved popular and was soon out of stock and out of date. With information changing all the time, the need for an updated second edition was clear. That came about in 1999 with the publication of “the Hertfordshire Funding Guide 1999”. Sponsored by Nat West, it was a larger, printed work that linked up with the then Money Advice Unit of the County Council who wished to update their earlier publications which focussed on individual access to funding, something the Community Foundation has never really been able to provide.

The 1999 Guide also formalised a logical outcome of the fact that the Community Foundation was always being asked about funding sources: we offered 'signposting' other possible sources of support, producing a larger document, covering a number of other key areas.

This Guide, if you are still reading this far, was the next logical step. Hertfordshire Community Foundation decided to review how it offered information to the county in terms of help in looking for funding. Usefully, this coincided with Hertfordshire County Council wishing to ensure that access to funding information was as wide as possible. The County Council kindly sponsored the Foundation's work on what we believe will be a superb asset for Hertfordshire becoming the natural port of call for anyone looking for funding.
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Acknowledgements

 Our thanks are due, firstly, to Hertfordshire County Council and especially Cllr Derrick Ashley, then a Trustee of the Foundation, for his help and guidance, to Andrew Burt within the Council who commissioned the first web based version of this site, and now the update, and again to Carol Cain who ensured that the HERN database was at our disposal and is always ready to help in her professional and knowledgeable way. Chris Lee was an excellent source of information and guidance. Rob O’Brien and his team at Tactix Ltd designed, built and updated this excellent site, now the most used data source in Hertfordshire.

Mistakes and updates
This web site and all the information in it is given in good faith but with no acceptance of any liability (see Disclaimer on the left hand side).

However, any errors and omissions we would like to correct. Please do let us know if you come across an error or something that needs updating. Please send an e-mail with the details to Funding-guide@hertscf.org.uk

Because this guide is online, we intend to try to keep it updated as much as possible. Your help is appreciated.

Finally, we would like to express our appreciation to the correspondents of the many organisations who kindly took the time to provide the information that this Guide is all about.