Trust fundraising and bid writing that gets more funders saying yes
Money Tree Fundraising is a UK fundraising consultancy whose trust fundraising practice helps charities secure funding from trusts and foundations, with 121 trust contracts delivered for 101 charities since 2018.
Funders are pausing programmes and closing to charities they do not already know. We help you see which of your funders need an application and which need a relationship first, then we do the work with your team.
"Our experience has been 100% positive and the recommendations made have been implemented by our fundraisers already. Having an expert in your field work with you will only help to make you better at what you already do well, and give you the confidence to try new approaches."
PDSA
Does one of these sound like your trust programme?
"We're sending more applications and winning fewer."
Sending more is rarely the answer, and past a point it makes things worse. What changes the result is choosing where an application will do, and where a funder needs to know you first.
"Nobody will fund our core costs."
Many funders will, when the costs are explained in a way they recognise. It starts with showing what the running costs make possible. How to make core costs fundable.
"A funder we've had for years has gone invitation only."
You are not locked out, though it can feel that way. Invitation-only funders still fund charities their trustees and staff know, and becoming known is something you can plan.
"Our trustees know people at trusts, and nobody has asked them."
It is often the first place to look. A planned conversation with your board can turn up contacts at funders you have been applying to cold for years.
If you could have said any one of these, then this page is for you.
"We don't have the time or the people to write."
Then you need hands as well as advice. We research and write applications alongside your team, for your team to send, or cover a gap while you recruit.
What has changed for trust fundraisers
Fewer funders take applications from charities they have never heard of, and the ones still open are swamped. Applications still work for many funders. The skill now is knowing which ones, and putting your relationship time where it changes the result.
1,038
changes to UK trust and foundation funding logged since March 2024
63% against 25%
success rate for warm and repeat applications, against cold ones
Sources: The List (Jo Jeffery), October 2026; Gifted Philanthropy, 2025 Trusts and Foundations Insights Survey.
How we can help with trusts and bids
"Our applications are good, and fewer are coming back as yes."
Build your Funder Relationships: we work out with your team which funders need a relationship as well as an application, and write the plans for the ten that will change your income.
"We're bidding for statutory grants or contracts."
Bid and tender writing with Rachal Minchinton, for statutory grants and public sector contracts, at £500 + VAT a day.
"We want an expert to look at our applications."
Trust fundraising by the day: application critique, rewriting and new applications, at £441 + VAT a day. You decide how many days.
"We don't know which funders to approach."
Prospect research: a researched list of the trusts that fit your work, ranked, with the reason for each. Charged by the day at £441 + VAT.
Not sure which you need? Rachal will help you work it out on a free 30-minute call. Book a call
"We need someone inside the team."
Interim and outsourced trust fundraising: an experienced trust fundraiser working with your team, a few days a month or to cover a gap while you recruit. Charged by the day at £441 + VAT.
Results from our trust work
Robin Cancer Trust, 2024
20 of 86 applications won over two years: just under £299,000, including a National Lottery Reaching Communities award.
Edinburgh World City of Literature Trust, 2024
10 of 61 applications won, £76,250, in a particularly competitive year for funding.
Racing Welfare, 2015 to 2016
At least £220,000 in trust funding, while the charity reviewed its fundraising.
Results as recorded in each charity's approved case study. Read the case studies
Who you will work with
Stacey Teece
Trust fundraising consultant, leads our trust work
Stacey has more than 20 years' experience in trust, foundation and major donor fundraising, including seven years at PDSA. Her grants include £400,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and two National Lottery awards. She hosts Let's Chat Trust Fundraising every month.
Rachal Minchinton
New Business Manager, bid and tender writing
Rachal has more than 20 years in income generation and has overseen tens of millions of pounds raised across trusts, statutory commissioners, major donors and corporate partnerships. She leads our bid and tender writing as well as undertaking trust fundraising.
Beth Upton
Founder and CEO
Beth founded Money Tree Fundraising in 2010 and has developed all of the company’s methodologies. She has worked in high value fundraising since 2002. She led the Marlowe Theatre's £4.5 million capital campaign, personally raising £960,000 from trusts and foundations in its second year.
76% of our work comes from returning clients and personal recommendation.
Free ways to get started
Trust Fundraising 101
New to trust fundraising, or new to the role? A free handout on the eight steps to a trust fundraising plan, with a video to go with it.
The Proposal Matrix
A 12-page workbook that takes one project through 22 questions funders ask, and answers each for your core work, a funded project and your long-term vision.
Charity Commission Advanced Search
Stacey's free video on using the register's Advanced Search to build a list of grant-making trusts by cause, area and income.
Or join the Trust Fundraising Hub on Facebook, where Stacey posts funder deadlines every fortnight.
Questions about trust fundraising
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Trust fundraising is asking charitable trusts and foundations for grants, usually through a written application and, more and more, through a relationship with the funder first. UK trusts and foundations gave £7.4bn in 2024-25, excluding the Wellcome Trust (UKGrantmaking 2026).
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Many will, if you show what the running costs make possible and cost them accurately into your bids. Rising Sun Domestic Violence and Abuse Service secured £120,000 towards its core costs over three years with our support (2021). Our guide sets out how.
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Yes, for charities that run it well. In LarkOwl's 2026 survey of 75 UK charities, trusts and foundations returned £8.38 for every £1 spent.
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Yes. We research and write applications with your team, and your charity sends them, because the relationship with each funder belongs to you.
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No. We plan each approach with you and your team makes the contact, so the relationship stays with your charity.
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Plan for twelve to eighteen months from first idea to money in the bank. Many trusts take six months or more to decide, and a relationship takes longer still to change what a funder gives.
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Trust work by the day, interim support and prospect research are £441 + VAT a day, and bid and tender writing is £500 + VAT a day. Build your Funder Relationships has a fixed price; Rachal can talk you through it.
"Money Tree Fundraising gave us the confidence to do and achieve more. The questions they asked made us challenge the way we do things and seek to improve."
Facial Palsy UK
Or just ask us.
Thirty minutes, no obligation, no pitch. Bring the situation as it actually is, and we will tell you what we would do in your position, whether or not that involves us.