Want to access DSC support for free?

Many of the organisations we support get the cost of their Funds Online subscriptions, course and conference places and publications covered by their funder(s) through their Funder Plus, Grants Plus or other grant holder support programmes.  

How do I find out if any of our funders do this? 

Different funders refer to this kind of support in different ways, including Funder Plus, Funding Plus, Grants Plus, Grant Holder Support, More Than Money, or a host of other capacity building related names, so it might not always be obvious without asking. The easiest way is to just ask your grants manager/officer, or whoever is your main contact. 

What if they don’t? 

There are three really easy things you can do to encourage them. The first is to just register your interest. Just by asking your funders if they have a Funder Plus programme you’ll be making it more likely that they’ll consider adding capacity-building support to their grant making – and the more people asking, the more likely it is that they’ll consider it.  

The second is to share some relevant info with them on how it works, the benefits of doing it, and examples of other funders that are successfully using Funder Plus support to strengthen their grant holders and help their grants to have a bigger impact.  

The Association of Charitable Foundations (the membership body for grant making trusts and foundations) recently made Funder Plus one of their five principles of impactful grant making – you can read more about that here (and share with your funders if they’re not aware of it): Principles for More Impactful Grant-Making 

DSC has also written some interesting and informative articles about how we’ve approached Funder Plus with the grant holders we’re supporting. You (and your funders) can find out more here in out Funder Hub: Directory of Social Change – Funder Hub 

Thirdly, because we get how delicate managing funder relationships can be, you can ask us and we’ll get in touch and ask them (without mentioning you obviously!). Just drop our Customer Service team a line at [email protected] and let us know which funder you think could, should or would benefit from taking a Funder Plus approach and we’ll reach out to them and see if we can help!