6 Resources Every Charity Needs for Successful Grant Applications
Securing grant funding depends on far more than the strength of a written submission. Funders are making a broader judgement about the organisation behind the application — whether it is credible, financially sound, properly governed, and genuinely equipped to deliver the outcomes it has committed to.
Charities that perform well in competitive grant rounds have typically built the internal infrastructure that makes that credibility evident. They can generate accurate financial reports quickly, back up their impact claims with data rather than anecdote, and present their organisation in a way that instils funder confidence well before any formal meeting. The six tools below each support one or more of these capabilities.
1. Sage Intacct: Fund Accounting and Financial Management
Before awarding funds, grant makers scrutinise how a charity handles the money it already holds. The capacity to produce precise reports showing income and expenditure broken down by fund, to demonstrate that previous restricted grants were spent as directed, and to present a well-reasoned budget with transparent financial assumptions has become a baseline expectation among serious funders rather than a quality that sets an organisation apart.
Sage Intacct is designed around the fund accounting principles that sit at the heart of charity finance. It makes it practical to track expenditure against individual grants, generate the financial reports that funders need at both application and reporting stages, and maintain the governance standards that give grant makers assurance. Charities that cannot readily produce clear fund-level financial information face a significant disadvantage before their application is even read.
Why it matters: Financial credibility is evaluated across the entire grant relationship, not only at the point of application. The right financial management system keeps that credibility consistently visible.
2. Benevity: Corporate Fundraising and Giving Platform
Many institutional funders view established corporate partnerships as a positive indicator — both as a form of external validation and as evidence that a charity is not overly dependent on any single income stream. Benevity is a corporate social responsibility and workplace giving platform used by hundreds of major companies to administer their charitable giving programmes, employee volunteering schemes, and community investment activity.
Being listed and active on Benevity opens access to corporate giving budgets that a large number of charities are not currently tapping into. The corporate relationships that develop through the platform also provide the kind of broad stakeholder evidence that grant makers find reassuring when assessing an organisation's wider support base.
Why it matters: Established corporate funding relationships signal external credibility and income diversification, both of which strengthen a charity's standing in competitive grant processes.
3. Eventbrite: Event Management and Community Engagement Platform
Funders focused on community-based or place-based work frequently want to see concrete evidence that a charity is genuinely embedded in the communities it operates within and holds their trust. Documented engagement through events, workshops, consultations, and public gatherings represents some of the most compelling evidence of this connection — but to be useful in an application, that engagement needs to be quantified.
Eventbrite offers a straightforward platform for organising and publicising events, and it automatically produces attendance records and registration data that can be referenced directly in grant applications and funder reports as quantified proof of community reach.
Why it matters: Funders with a focus on participatory approaches place growing weight on quantified community engagement. Eventbrite generates that evidence as a natural output of events a charity would be running regardless.
4. Canva for Nonprofits: Design and Communications Platform
Every piece of communication a charity sends shapes the impression a grant maker forms of the organisation — including the presentation quality of application documents, annual reports, and supplementary materials. An organisation that produces polished, consistent, well-designed materials signals that it takes communication seriously and understands how to represent its cause effectively.
Canva for Nonprofits gives registered charities access to Canva's professional design platform free of charge, enabling them to produce application documents, impact reports, and funder-facing presentations to a genuinely professional standard without requiring a design budget or dedicated in-house resource.
Why it matters: Strong presentation alone does not secure grants, but weak presentation can introduce doubts that damage an otherwise sound application. Canva for Nonprofits eliminates that risk without adding to the charity's costs.
5. Impact Mapper: Impact Measurement and Reporting Platform
The move toward outcomes-based funding has gathered considerable pace in recent years. Grant makers now increasingly require evidence not simply that activities were carried out, but that those activities produced measurable changes for the people or communities the charity works with. Organisations that approach impact measurement in a systematic, data-led way are assessed very differently from those whose evidence relies primarily on anecdote and case studies.
Impact Mapper is a purpose-built impact measurement platform that supports charities in designing measurement frameworks, gathering outcome data, and producing the evidenced impact reports that funders require at application stage, at interim check-ins, and at the close of a grant.
Why it matters: Evidenced impact is no longer a distinguishing feature in competitive grant rounds — it is an assumed standard. A systematic approach supported by a dedicated platform ensures that standard is met reliably.
6. Salesforce Nonprofit: Donor and Stakeholder CRM
Institutional grant makers tend to look more favourably on organisations that can show broad stakeholder support rather than reliance on a small number of funders. A charity with a growing individual donor base, active corporate relationships, and visible community backing presents a more resilient financial model than one drawing the majority of its income from institutional sources alone.
Salesforce Nonprofit is a CRM platform developed specifically for the sector that brings together the management of relationships with donors, volunteers, corporate supporters, and beneficiaries in a single system. The data it contains — covering supporter growth, retention rates, and engagement levels — is directly applicable in grant applications that ask about income diversification and evidence of community support.
Why it matters: Income diversification and demonstrated stakeholder support carry increasing weight in competitive grant assessment. A well-maintained CRM makes that evidence straightforward to retrieve and present.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much weight do grant makers give to a charity's filed accounts? A great deal. Most funders examine a charity's most recently filed accounts as part of their due diligence process, paying attention to reserves levels, the spread of income sources, major expenditure lines, and whether the accounts carry any audit qualifications or emphasis of matter paragraphs. Accounts filed late, those containing qualifications, or those showing financial patterns that prompt concern can significantly reduce the likelihood of a successful application, regardless of how well the written case has been made. Filing accurate, timely accounts is a fundamental obligation rather than an optional extra.
What reserves level do funders generally look for? Requirements differ between funders, but most want to see that a charity has a documented reserves policy in place, that trustees have made a deliberate and considered decision about the appropriate level to hold, and that the current position can be clearly explained. The specific figure matters less than the quality of the governance thinking that sits behind it and how clearly that reasoning can be articulated in a funding conversation.
Can smaller charities compete effectively against larger organisations in grant rounds? Yes, particularly where a funder has specifically set out to support smaller or community-led organisations. The priority for smaller charities is ensuring that their financial management, governance, and impact evidence is rigorous and proportionate to their scale. A well-organised small charity with clear fund-level financial records and a systematic approach to impact data will consistently outperform a larger organisation with weaker governance in grant rounds designed for organisations of its profile.
How should a charity get ready for a due diligence visit from a funder? A site visit is a chance to demonstrate in person everything the written application could only describe. Being prepared to walk through financial management systems, explain how impact is tracked and reported, and introduce key staff members — and beneficiaries where possible — reinforces the written case. The finance lead should be ready to demonstrate the systems in place for fund accounting and grant reporting, and this is where Sage Intacct's clear fund-level reporting is particularly relevant.
What is the most frequently cited avoidable reason that capable charities are turned down for grants? Weak financial presentation is the failure point most consistently identified. This covers accounts that do not clearly show how restricted funds have been handled, budgets that do not connect logically to the charity's financial track record, and an inability to explain a proposed project's financial model with clarity and confidence. Financial management systems that generate accurate, clear, fund-level reporting address this problem directly.
