Everything UK charities need to fund their mission
The Serin Funding Intelligence Hub brings together free guides, assessments, toolkits, funder profiles and grant listings — built to help UK charities, CICs and social enterprises move from funding discovery to completed application.
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Grant Writing & Funding Success Guide
A 10-chapter PDF covering everything from funder types to submission checklists.
DownloadFunding Readiness Assessment
5 minutes. 18 questions. Personalised AI report with priority actions.
Take the assessmentFunding Readiness Toolkit
10 printable checklists every UK charity needs.
Get the toolkitGrants by organisation type
Curated funder lists for specific kinds of organisation.
Grants for small charities
Small UK charities (typically those with annual income under £500k) have access to a focused set of funders who deliberately back grassroots and community-rooted work. The list below covers the most active, with realistic award sizes and what each funder looks for.
Read the listGrants for community groups
Community groups — including residents' associations, sports clubs, faith groups, parent-led initiatives and informal volunteer collectives — can access a meaningful set of grants without being a registered charity. The funders below explicitly include constituted-but-unregistered organisations.
Read the listGrants for social enterprises and CICs
Social enterprises and CICs sit between the charity and commercial worlds — and the funding landscape reflects that. Some traditional charity funders exclude CICs; others actively welcome them. There's also a growing pool of social investment and blended finance you wouldn't see as a pure charity.
Read the listGrants for youth projects
Youth work has a strong and well-defined funding ecosystem in the UK, with several major funders dedicated to projects for children and young people. The list below covers active funders across uniformed groups, open-access youth work, mentoring and youth voice.
Read the listGrants for mental health projects
Mental health is a priority area for many of the UK's largest trusts and foundations, with funding flowing into prevention, early intervention, peer support, crisis services and community wellbeing. The funders below are actively making grants in this space.
Read the listPractical how-to guides
How to apply for charity grants
Most rejected grant applications fail for preventable reasons — wrong funder fit, weak need evidence, vague outcomes, unrealistic budgets or missing attachments. This guide walks through the end-to-end process used by charities with consistently high application success rates, from initial funder research through to post-submission follow-up.
Read the guideHow to write a charity grant application
Strong applications follow a narrative arc — need, response, outcomes, evidence, sustainability — written in the funder's language and grounded in specifics. This guide breaks down what funders actually reward, section by section, and the patterns that cause otherwise-strong applications to fail.
Read the guideWhat grants are available for charities
UK charity funding falls into six broad sources. Most charities draw from three or four of them. Knowing what each one is, how it works, and where it fits in a sustainable funding mix is the foundation of a resilient income strategy. This guide walks through each source with realistic numbers, typical timescales, and the organisations best placed to access them.
Read the guideFunder profiles
Major UK funders — what they fund, who's eligible, and what assessors look for.
The National Lottery Community Fund
The UK's largest community funder, distributing National Lottery good cause money across the four UK nations.
£300 – £500,000 (multiple programmes)
Garfield Weston Foundation
One of the UK's largest independent grant-making foundations, funding across welfare, youth, community, arts, faith, education, environment, health and museums & heritage.
£1,000 – £100,000 (Regular grants); much larger Major grants on invitation
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
A major UK independent funder of organisations working on social change, the environment and the arts.
Typically £30,000 – £200,000+, often multi-year
Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales
Backs small and local charities in England and Wales tackling complex social issues, with long-term unrestricted funding and developmental support.
£25,000 – £75,000 over 2 years (plus development support)
Henry Smith Charity
A major UK independent funder focused on social and economic disadvantage, particularly through its Strategic Grants programme.
£10,000 – £100,000 per year, often multi-year
Insights & analysis
Practical thinking on grant writing, funding readiness, governance and AI for UK charities.
Browse insightsFrom discovery to completed application
Most platforms stop at helping you find funding. Serin helps you find funding and move towards a completed application — where funders publish their questions and guidance.