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Managing your Trust Fundraising Programme Strategically

  • 23 June 2026 10:00am - 4:30pm
  • Online
  • Training Courses
    • Trusts Fundraising
    • Strategy
  • SC1039
  • Current

Change is happening in many organisations – revisiting how you deliver your services and understanding who your primary and secondary beneficiaries are, may in itself open up new funders to you. In recent months many trusts have themselves been pivoting and changing how they operate. Many have also been looking at what they fund and, as a result have opened new grants schemes. Knowing the current trends in trusts fundraising is vital to your success in terms of your approaches but also in managing your programme strategically. Analysing your past and current submissions and success rates again now can be vital to helping you more accurately forecast income from this valuable source. Trusts are a major income stream for many charities – more vital now for some, than ever before! How you build and maintain great relationships with your supporters is, of course, critically important and can make all the difference to your trusts pipeline. This is key to helping you forecast and revitalise to your strategy. On this course, you’ll find out more about the best type of trusts for your organisation and the best ways to approach each type. This interactive course investigates the key elements of success and will help you confidently and strategically manage a successful programme.

Course Fees
Individual Member Fee
  • £207.00
Non-Individual Member Fee
  • £272.00
Key Information

This course is for those who are responsible for the management and strategy side of a trusts fundraising programme within their organisation or anyone who needs to understand more about this area. Learners are expected to be in a fundraising role that reviews and manages a trust programme (even if not managing a team of staff or volunteers) and needs to take a strategic approach to the grant-making practice. 

  • The current trust funding landscape
  • Trusts as part of the overall fundraising portfolio assisting to deliver the business objectives of the organisation
  • Evaluating your trust programme and identifying effective element to help you improve and move forward
  • Top tips for applications and proposals
  • Securing information vital to an inspiring case for support from others within the organisation
  • Managing the internal environment to help others understand the role trusts can play in funding your organsation and & identifying projects to secure trusts
  • Managing expectations – yours, your teams and others in the organisation
  • Different approaches – identifying your strengths and overcoming weaknesses
  • Reviewing your/your teams’ proposals and providing constructive feedback 

By the end of this course you will be able to: 

  • Share with others in your organisation current trust grant-making practices 
  • Understand the importance of an effective strategy for fundraising from grant-making trusts and foundations
  • Identify the financial and resource information required to build your strategy
  • Review, measure and analyse your success in terms of return on investment
  • Manage your trust programme’s targets and overall budgets
  • Classify different types of trusts and foundations in the UK in terms of their role and significance
  • Identify and understand effective techniques for approaching each type successfully
  • Identify sources of info to spot future trends and review how to improve/build your relationships
  • Use relevant information to report effectively both internally and externally 
About your trainer
The live virtual training experience

The Chartered Institute of Fundraising's live virtual training is delivered by trainers who are leading experts in their chosen discipline. Each virtual course has been especially designed to deliver a rich virtual learning experience. Your course will feature:

  • Zoom platform learning environment
  • Interactive engagement with the trainer and peers
  • Group discussions and exercises
  • Real-life case studies and examples
  • Ample Q&A opportunities throughout the sessions
Technology requirements 

The course is being delivered via the online platform zoom. To enable you to interact with your tutor and your class you will need to have access to a microphone (or access to a landline phone) and ideally have a working video link via a camera. To test compatibility with your system, you can join a test meeting via this link.