Funder Plus Research: Executive Summary
Funder Plus has become an increasingly important part of UK grant making. As charities and social enterprises face growing financial pressures, workforce challenges and rising demand for services, many funders now recognise that grant funding alone is often insufficient to build resilient organisations capable of delivering long-term impact.
This research was commissioned by Eastside People to understand how Funder Plus is evolving across the UK funding landscape. It combines a review of published research and programme evaluations with interviews involving fifteen funders and sector bodies responsible for designing, commissioning and delivering Funder Plus programmes.
The research identifies a clear shift in both the purpose and delivery of Funder Plus. Rather than focusing primarily on strengthening individual projects, funders are increasingly investing in organisational resilience through leadership, governance, financial sustainability and organisational development. Support is becoming more flexible, tailored and relationship-based, with greater emphasis on trust, peer learning and long-term
organisational change.
While there is no single model of Funder Plus, successful programmes share several common characteristics. Support is designed around organisational need, combines different forms of assistance, draws on trusted specialist providers and increasingly creates opportunities for organisations to learn from one another. Funders are also changing their role, acting less as direct providers of support and more as brokers, commissioners and convenors.
The evidence suggests that the next challenge is not whether to provide support alongside funding, but how to scale high-quality support while maintaining flexibility, trust and value for money. The report concludes with practical lessons for funders designing or reviewing Funder Plus programmes and highlights a clear direction of travel: support alongside funding is becoming a strategic investment in stronger organisations, stronger relationships and ultimately greater social impact.
What is Funder Plus?
Throughout this report we use the term Funder Plus to describe the broad range of nonfinancial support that funders provide, or enable, alongside grant funding to strengthen the capability, resilience and long-term effectiveness of the organisations they support. This support may include organisational development, leadership development, consultancy, mentoring, peer learning, technical assistance, investment readiness, governance support, fundraising support or access to specialist advice. It may be delivered directly by funders, commissioned from external providers, or accessed through referral and brokerage.
A wide range of terminology is used across the sector, including Grants Plus, Funding Plus, technical assistance, capacity building, development support and organisational development support. While there are subtle differences between these terms, interviewees often used them interchangeably to describe broadly similar approaches.
This research report adopts Funder Plus as the primary term for three reasons:
- It places the emphasis on the strategic role of the funder in enabling support, rather than on the grant itself
- It encompasses support delivered alongside grants, as well as support offered independently of specific funding programmes
- It reflects the increasing diversity of approaches identified through this research, including brokerage, peer learning, specialist consultancy and organisational development.
Download the full research report via the button below.
If you would like to discuss Eastside People’s support and services for the charity funder community, please contact Jo Simpson, Head of Programmes via the form below or email Jo directly here: [email protected].
