26/08/2026
When did being small stop feeling mighty?
As someone who has worked in large charities and small ones, I often reflect on how different the funding landscape feels today.
Like many grassroots organisations, my week is not spent solely writing funding applications. I am delivering projects, supporting children, recruiting volunteers, collecting impact data, writing reports, organising events, managing partnerships and often doing countless practical jobs that keep everything running.
Yet funding applications increasingly require significant time, specialist knowledge and resources. Many larger charities have dedicated fundraising teams and bid writers. Small charities often do not. We are fitting funding applications around everything else.
What concerns me most is that some of the organisations closest to their communities can find themselves overlooked. We see needs emerge around us, build trusted relationships over years and deliver localised support, yet funding criteria and organisational thresholds can sometimes unintentionally favour larger organisations.
There is also a growing challenge when funding opportunities become so specific that charities responding directly to community need find themselves trying to squeeze essential work into predefined funding categories, which is not ideal or the way in which we should best serve our communities.
This is by no way a criticism of larger charities or funders. There are many examples of excellent partnership working and transformative grant-making. But it is a reminder that if we want thriving communities, we need a funding environment where grassroots organisations have a genuine opportunity to compete and be recognised for the impact they create.
Sometimes the smallest charities are doing some of the biggest work.
Keely Burch - Development Manager
