Why “Funder Plus” is no longer a nice-to-have

With rising demand, limited funding, and growing pressure to prove impact, Funder Plus has become a strategic necessity by pairing grants with capacity-building support that strengthens charities’ infrastructure, increases long-term effectiveness, and delivers greater value for funders without adding administrative burden.

Most funders I talk to are wrestling with the same dilemma: demand is going through the roof, funding pots aren’t getting any bigger, and everyone is under pressure to show “impact” yesterday. In that context, Funder Plus (or “grants plus”) has quietly shifted from a nice extra to a strategic necessity.

At DSC we work with over 55,000 charities a year, across every conceivable cause. The pattern is depressingly familiar: brilliant organisations, doing vital work, held back by fragile infrastructure – wobbly governance, over-stretched fundraising, thin management capacity, basic policies that haven’t kept up with reality. The barrier often isn’t willingness; it’s money and time. When you’re scrambling to keep the lights on, finding a couple of grand for training, databases or expert support can feel impossible.

That’s where Funder Plus changes the game. By covering the costs of capacity-building alongside the grant, funders can remove one of the biggest blockers to long-term impact. Instead of hoping grantees can somehow “fit in” organisational development, you’re intentionally resourcing it.

We’ve seen this up close. One foundation recently offered every grantee a £1,000 bursary to spend on DSC support – anything from governance training to Funds Online subscriptions. In practice, that meant staff and trustees could finally get on the courses, conferences and publications they’d been eyeing up for years but couldn’t justify. The feedback? Overwhelmingly positive – especially from smaller organisations where “staff development budget” is usually just wishful thinking.

Funder Plus also gives funders better visibility of what’s really going on. When you see which courses and tools are being used, and hear directly from grantees about the difference it’s making, you get a much richer picture than a year-end report ever provides. You’re not just funding activity – you’re helping to build stronger governance, diversified income, better data, clearer strategy and more confident leadership.

And crucially, this doesn’t have to create more work for funders. Because DSC designs and delivers the support, manages all the admin, and reports back on usage and impact, funders get all the benefits of a Funder Plus approach without needing to build a new team to run it.

If you’re a funder wondering how to get more lasting value from every pound you give, Funder Plus is one of the most effective levers you have.

You can read more about how we work with funders, and some of the options available, on DSC’s Funder Hub: https://www.dsc.org.uk/category/funder-hub/

If this has sparked ideas or questions, connect with me here on LinkedIn or drop DSC a line to [email protected] so we can explore what might work for your grant holders and partners.