Fundraising news, training and events, plus new funds!
Hello Fundraisers,
Welcome to our May Fundraising Newsletter, bringing you the latest fundraising news, training and events - plus new funds.
In this month's issue:
Fundraising News:
- Email marketing in 2026
- ICO publishes ‘soft opt-in’ guidance
- Come and join our team!
- Are you making the most of mobile?
Training & Events:
- Meet the Funder - BBC Children in Need - 19 May
- Esmée Fairbairn: pre-application webinar - 3 June
- Digital Fundraising - 16 June
- Proving Your Value to Funders - 16 July
- Social Media Marketing and Remarketing for Community Building - 21 September
New Funds: We have also pulled together a variety of new funds for you.
Please contact Alison for fundraising support if you have any questions or issues you would like to talk through.
Kind regards,
Alison Morey
Email marketing in 2026
Email marketing – sending emails to people that either raise awareness or funds for your cause – remains one of the most effective forms of marketing.
The potential for email marketing is huge. Email now reaches 4.6 billion email users globally, and 33% of donors say email is the tool that most inspires them to give, ahead of social media, websites and print.
Here are some tips to help you improve your email marketing:
1. Grow your supporters
Lots of people will willingly sign up to your email lists – so make sure you make this as easy for them as possible. You can do this by:
- Including an obvious sign-up link on your website
- Encouraging people to sign up through your social media accounts
- Using events such as fundraising or training events to encourage sign-ups
- Asking people if they want to sign up to your newsletter, such as your volunteers or people who contact your organisation for support.
- Make sure you ask your supporters to consent to joining your email list.
2. Personalise your emails
Personalisation is vital to email marketing because no one wants to receive emails they find irrelevant – and will soon unsubscribe from your list if they do.
Email marketing software, such as MailChimp, will allow you to set up personalised ‘To’ fields, naming the person you are emailing. Emails with personalised subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened, and personalised calls to action convert 202% better than default ones. AI can really help here - many platforms, including MailChimp, have built-in AI features which can be used for subject-line suggestions, for example.
Keeping accurate donor profiles and segmenting lists (by donation history, past attendance, interests) can also increase revenue.
3. Optimise for mobile
62.9% of UK consumers read emails on their mobile phones, and up to 78% of emails are opened on mobile, with half of consumers deleting an email immediately if it doesn't display correctly on their phone.
4. Be compelling
Showcase the work you do, explain what you hope to achieve, and talk about the urgency. Make it emotional – the more personal the message, the more likely it is to have a positive reaction. It’s all about telling stories. Use videos and photos of real people (or animals!) where possible.
5. Keep it simple
Email marketing software will offer a wide range of templates. We recommend keeping it simple; clear, uncluttered designs that cut to the heart of your story are most effective.
Keep paragraphs short – two to three sentences is ideal – and make good use of sub-headings and bullet points.
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
ICO publishes ‘soft opt-in’ guidance
Earlier this year, new legislation introduced soft opt-in to direct electronic marketing for charitable purposes, marking a significant shift in how charities can engage with supporters.
Almost three months on from implementation, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has now published detailed guidance on how charities can apply these new rules in practice.
Come and join our team!
We're looking for an experienced fundraiser for the role of Funding and Sustainability Officer. You will guide voluntary organisations in North West Surrey on all aspects of fundraising, with a special focus on developing sustainable fundraising and business strategies. Your work will ensure that organisations are on
solid foundations to meet the needs and challenges of the future.
Permanent, 28-36 hours per week
Salary £38,000 – £40,000 pro rata
Closing date is 22 May 2026.
Are you making the most of mobile?
According to a new report from fundraising platform goDonate - Online Donations Insights Report 2026 - more than half of all one-off donations (58%) and two-thirds of regular giving (67%) are made on a mobile device - a significant jump from just a year earlier, when mobile accounted for 40% of one-off gifts. Digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay are also on the rise, now making up nearly half of all one-off donations.
The broader picture is a tough one: fewer donors, lower overall giving and more selective support. But the report also shows encouraging growth in online giving, specifically, with one-off online income up 16% year-on-year.
So - check how your donation pages look and work on a mobile phone. If the process is slow, fiddly or doesn't offer familiar payment options, you may be losing donors before they complete their gift.
Meet the Funder: BBC Children in Need - 19 May 2026, 10am, Online
We will be joined at this Meet the Funder session by Pam Bacon, Impact Officer for the South East at BBC Children in Need, on Tuesday 19 May at 10am. Pam will give a 40-minute presentation, with time to answer questions afterwards.
This will be followed up by 1-2-1 sessions at the Chertsey office on Thursday 4 June (fully booked) and Thursday 18 June (now booking), when people can book a 20-minute appointment with Pam. Please email Alison to book a 1-2-1 slot.
About BBC Children in Need
BBC Children in Need funds vital support for children and young people struggling with challenges caused by mental health, poverty, social inequity and family-related issues. Our ambition is that every child and young person should have the chance to thrive and be the best they can be.
They support not-for-profit, community-based organisations in their work to help address some of the day-to-day challenges that impact children and young people up to the age of 18 years, living in the UK.
Grants can contribute towards core organisation costs and project costs associated with directly supporting children and young people to experience positive differences in their lives. Grants of up to £40,000 per year are available for up to 3 years. They run a rolling programme so there are no published deadline dates.
Esmée Fairbairn: pre-application webinar
Join Esmée Fairbairn on 3 June 2026 for a pre-application Q&A webinar for organisations interested in applying to Esmée for support.
This session is designed to help organisations better understand our application process and what we’re looking for - and to support you in deciding whether to invest time in applying or if your efforts might be better focused elsewhere.
You’ll hear directly from Esmée staff, who will share insight into our guidance and decision-making, with most of the time dedicated to answering your questions.
📅 Date: 3 June 2026
🕑 Time: 2.00pm - 3.15pm
Digital Fundraising Training - 16 June 2026
VSNS Chertsey Office
Join us for our Digital Fundraising training, where we’ll explore how to attract and engage donors through social media. This session will cover:
- Understanding your audience
- Telling your story effectively through digital channels
- Mapping out your donor journey
Whether you’re new to digital fundraising or looking for new ideas and ways to refine your approach, this training will provide practical insights to help you boost digital engagement and donations.
Proving Your Value to Funders - 16 July 2026
VSNS Chertsey Office
Writing a funding bid isn’t just about filling in a form, it’s about turning your funding application into a story that funders want to be a part of.
It’s about making a compelling case for support, one that moves beyond good intentions to clearly show why your work matters. It’s about showing that no one else is already doing it for the community you support, evidencing the need, proving how and why it works, the change it is already making for individuals and in relieving demands on wider local resources, and the reasons it deserves backing for ongoing and increased impact.
Proving Your Value to Funders is a practical, insight-driven course designed to help you transform your funding applications into powerful stories of change.
The course will help you:
- Move beyond telling a funder your project will make a difference and show them how and why it already does with real-world examples
- Present your work as a compelling story of change, addressing the challenges and issues the funder cares about
- Back up your ambition with meaningful facts, figures, lived experience and evidence of the benefits through case studies
- Using data effectively (without overwhelming the reader)
- Connect emotionally while staying professional
- Demonstrate how your work reduces pressure on other services and the community, how it prevents escalation and crisis and illustrates long-term change
- Position your organisation as a credible, investable partner
- Present outcomes clearly, concisely and confidently so they feel confident in you and what you’re telling them!
Who this course is for
- Charity and community organisation leaders
- Social enterprise founders close to launch or those contemplating a community project
- Bid writers and fundraisers
- Anyone responsible for securing funding
Whether you’re new to bid writing or looking to strengthen your success rate, this course will help you present your project and organisation with clarity and credibility.
By the end of the course, we hope that you won’t just be asking for funding, you’ll be inviting funders to invest in meaningful, measurable change.
Social Media Marketing and Remarketing for Community Building - 21 September 2026
Staines Library
This workshop explores how to strategically use social media to attract, engage, and retain audiences through authentic community building. We will look at what is a reasonable expectation from your efforts, what kind of goals to set and how to achieve them. We will also cover the technique of growing an email list from your social media and website, and the fundamentals of remarketing, leveraging repetition and targeted messaging to really engage followers and subscribers
By the end of the course, you will understand how to integrate social media, email marketing, and remarketing strategies into a cohesive system to nurture relationships and boost their engagement.
Key Topics:
- Designing social media content that captures your target audience
- Achieving engagement and building an online community
- Growing and managing an email list effectively
- Creating remarketing campaigns that reinforce brand awareness through repetition
- Nurturing closer connections and longer-term relationships
Queen Elizabeth Trust launched
The Queen Elizabeth Trust is a new UK-wide charity that supports communities to restore and sustain shared spaces that bring people together across generations from all walks of life.
Inspired by Queen Elizabeth’s belief that “everyone is our neighbour”, the Trust works hand in hand with communities, providing funding and targeted support to create spaces that will thrive long into the future.
It is expected that the Trust will open for funding applications in Spring 2027.
Your organisation could receive one of five £1,000 funding pots in May
Tesco and funding platform easyfundraising have come together again to give a little help to good causes this month.
During May, when your network of volunteers and supporters shop with Tesco or F&F Clothing via the easyfundraising website or app, your organisation will receive free donations and have a chance to receive a £1,000 funding bonus!
To qualify for the Tesco Community Pledge
- Firstly, make sure you register your organisation with easyfundraising: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/community/
- Then, ask anyone connected to your organisation to use the easyfundraising platform when they want to shop with Tesco or F&F.
Each time one of them shops online, your organisation goes into the draw to receive a £1,000 funding boost. Plus, when your supporters shop with Tesco in May, they’ll raise £3 for you if it’s their first-time shop, and 50p for each subsequent shop they do at no extra cost, all courtesy of Tesco!
Let everyone know how they can help – for free! easyfundraising will help you get the word out to your network about this, with free downloadable images, flyers and messaging to share across your social media channels and newsletters.
To be considered for this funding opportunity, register your organisation with easyfundraising.
LandAid's Young Futures Fund offers grants to help young people at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Funding is to improve access to safe, secure and affordable housing, alongside support to help sustain tenancies and enable progression towards independent living.
One-year grants ranging from £5,000 to £40,000 are available. The funding can be used for projects that support individuals aged 16 to 25, including those that provide accommodation, skills development and employment opportunities. The fund prioritises organisations delivering frontline services, particularly those with strong local links and an established understanding of the needs and experiences of young people within their communities.
Expressions of Interest (EOIs) can be submitted until 22 May 2026.
The Trust holds grant rounds in Spring and Autumn. For 2026, funding priorities are:
- Spring - helping young women and girls (aged 11-18) involved in county lines and gangs; those who are care-experienced; and those who are either outside of education or at risk of school exclusion.
- Autumn - supporting young women (aged 17-30) already in contact with the criminal justice system who need holistic support to help them move away from offending; pre-release and through-the-gate support for young women to meet their immediate needs; and support for mothers before and after serving a custodial sentence.
Grants of between £50,000 and £100,000 are available for 18 months to three years. A maximum of £50,000 per year can be requested, and the amount of funding must be proportional to the project being undertaken.
Only organisations exclusively led by and for women and girls are eligible to apply, or be able to demonstrate that they are 'issue experts' working on one of the funding priorities.
The closing date for expressions of interest for the Spring 2026 application window is 21 May 2026.
Henry Smith Foundation: recreational trips
The Henry Smith Foundation offers grants for recreational trips in the UK, Isle of Man and Channel Islands for children up to and including 13 years old who face financial hardship, systemic inequity or disability.
Youth groups, non-profit groups and schools in the UK are eligible to apply. Priority will be given to projects that benefit disadvantaged and disabled children in the most deprived areas, based on the National Indices of Deprivation. For groups of children with disabilities, more flexibility will be given regarding the level of deprivation.
Grants between £500 and £3,000 are available for either a day trip or holidays up to seven days in length. This could be to a countryside or city location, but must be outside the children's immediate locality.
Applications should be received at least six weeks before the date of the trip to allow for administrative processing and decision-making.
For excursions taking place up to 30 September 2026, applications will close 19 August 2026.
Tesco has launched a new Fruit and Veg Grants programme to support organisations working with children and young people, to increase the availability of fruit and vegetables and support physical and mental wellbeing.
Grants are awarded through a customer vote in Tesco stores. Three local projects are shortlisted at a time, with awards of up to £1,500 for the project receiving the most votes, up to £1,000 for second place and up to £500 for third place. Shortlisting takes place every four months.
The initiative is open to schools, registered charities and not-for-profit organisations, including voluntary and community groups, social enterprises, parish and town councils, local authorities and housing organisations. Community Interest Companies must be limited by guarantee and have been operating for at least two years.
Funding can be used for a range of activities focused on healthy eating. This includes breakfast and after-school clubs providing fruit and vegetables, holiday clubs offering healthy meals and snacks, growing projects, cooking sessions, youth clubs, sports clubs and initiatives addressing holiday hunger. Support may also be provided for food banks assisting families.
Grants of up to £10,000 are available to deliver projects that work to improve the lives of disabled children and young people up to the age of 25, children and young people with life-limiting conditions, and their families.
The True Colours Trust Small Grants Programme will support projects such as:
- Activities for disabled children, children with life-limiting conditions, and their families.
- Activities that support siblings of disabled children or siblings of children with life-limiting conditions.
- Bereavement support for children and young people and families bereaved of a child.
- Family and parent-led peer support for parents of disabled children.
- Respite, which supports the whole family.
Priority will be given to organisations that operate in areas of high deprivation. Eligible costs include renovation work, upgrading, and additional equipment for hydrotherapy pools and multi-sensory rooms, minibuses, and specialised play equipment or access to play for disabled children, children with life-limiting conditions, and their families.
The Cash for Kids Impact Grants scheme supports children and young people up to and including 18 years old who are affected by poverty, abuse, neglect or those with additional support needs. The programme addresses:
- Poverty.
- Mental health and wellbeing.
- Sport and physical wellbeing.
- Disability or life-limiting illness.
- Education and essential skills.
- Diversity and inclusion.
Grants are usually between £1,000 and £3,000, although more or less can be requested.
