Funder due diligence, before the funder does it
Governance Ready
Funders decline applications for governance reasons more often than for weak projects, and they rarely say so in the feedback. This runs the checks a funder runs, in the order they run them, and tells you which ones stop an application dead.
What your income band requires
Select your income and nation above.
Where you stand
Nothing scored yet
Work down the checks. Anything marked as a blocker stops an application regardless of everything else, so those are reported separately from the score.
0 of 0 checks answered
On its way
We will send this over shortly, along with an honest read on what it would actually take to close the gaps. If we think you do not need us, we will say that too.
Evidence pack
Have these ready before you open an application form
Funders ask for the same small set of documents. Keeping a current folder of them turns a two week scramble into a ten minute upload, and it is the single highest return administrative job in a small organisation.
Facilitator notes
Run this before the funder conversation, not after. Governance failures are found at due diligence, which happens after an assessor has already liked the project. That is the worst possible point to discover the bank account has one signatory, because the organisation has spent weeks writing and the relationship starts with a decline.
Blockers are not a scale. Six items on this page stop an application dead whatever else is in place: the governing document, minimum unrelated trustees, the bank account and its two signatories, filed accounts, safeguarding where it applies, and the public register being current. Do not let a group average these away against a good score elsewhere.
The two answers that hide the most. Partial almost always means the document exists but is undated, unadopted or four years old. Ask two questions every time: when did the board adopt it, and what is the minute reference. An undated policy is treated by most funders as no policy, because it cannot be shown to have been in force.
Signatories are the most common single failure. One authorised person, or two people at the same address, fails a National Lottery check outright. It is also among the fastest fixes: a bank mandate change takes two to four weeks and needs a board minute. Start it in week 1 of any support programme, because the lead time is the constraint rather than the effort.
Where groups argue. Reserves policy. Small organisations often insist they have no reserves so cannot have a policy. The policy is the reasoning, not the balance: what level you are aiming for, why that figure, and what you will do while you are below it. A board minute of one paragraph satisfies most funders.
Sequencing across a support programme.
- Long lead time, start immediately: bank mandate changes, trustee recruitment, incorporation, DBS checks.
- One board meeting: reserves policy, register of interests, adopting policies that already exist in draft.
- Same week: filing an overdue return, correcting the public register, dating and filing documents properly.
On the CIC question. Groups are often told a CIC cannot get grant funding. Not true, but the pattern is real: many trusts and foundations restrict to registered charities, and the CIC34 is the first thing a funder or local authority reads. A CIC with a thin CIC34 is at a genuine disadvantage, and writing a substantive one is a week of work that pays back across every application.