Build your Funder Relationships
Know which of your trust funders need a relationship as well as an application, and have a plan for the ten that will change your income.
Build your Funder Relationships is a ten-week trust fundraising programme from Money Tree Fundraising. A charity's team routes and scores up to 50 of its funders, we strength-test every route and score, and we write cultivation plans for the ten where a relationship will change the result.
Your applications are strong. Your success rate is still falling.
A funder that has supported you for years now says "by invitation only".
Your success rate has dropped, though your applications have not got worse.
You apply to the same funders every year and have never spoken to anyone there.
Your trustees and chief executive know people at trusts, and nobody has asked them who.
Your team writes excellent applications and has never been shown how to build a relationship with a funder.
If you recognise one of those, this page is for you.
The open door is narrowing.
Funders are pausing programmes, restructuring and closing to unsolicited applications. Those still open receive far more applications than they can fund. And the charities a funder already knows are the ones most likely to be funded.
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: pauses, restructures, spend-outs and closed doors
37%
success rate for first-time applicants to The Robertson Trust’s Large Grants last year, against 71% overall
Sources: The List (Jo Jeffery), October 2026; The Robertson Trust, May 2026.
Relationship-only
The funder takes no unsolicited applications, funds past grantees only, or finds charities through its trustees' networks. Without a relationship, there is no way in.
Your team sorts every funder into one of three routes, and we check every one. The route decides where your time goes.
Every funder has a route that works.
Relationship-ideal
The funder is open to applications, but contact before you apply changes the odds or the size of the grant. A good application helps; a known name helps more.
Application-driven
The funder is open and process-led. Contact is neither offered nor rewarded, so a strong application is the route. Relationship time spent here is time taken from a funder that needs it.
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Weeks 1 and 2
Behind the scenes
We review the information you gather for us, along with our own research, so we understand your charity and its history with funders. On our first call we introduce the three routes and the 3 Cs, and route and score two of your funders together.
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Weeks 3 to 5
Your funders, routed and scored
Your team routes and scores up to 50 funders for Capacity, Commitment and Connection, because you know your funders and who you know. Then we check every route and strength-test every score against each funder's current guidance, accounts and grants, and the funder changes we track.
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Week 6
Your shortlist
On our second call we talk through every route and score we challenged, and agree the ten funders where a relationship will change the result.
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Weeks 6 to 10
Your cultivation plans
Ten plans: who leads, the first approach, twelve months of contact and when to ask. We finish with a 90-minute session for everyone who will hold a relationship, so every plan has an owner.
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Six weeks later
Afterwards
A check-in call six weeks later. Or Part 2, below.
Ten weeks, five stages.
What you finish with.
Your Funder Scoring Sheet
Up to 50 funders routed and scored for Capacity, Commitment and Connection by your team, and strength-tested by us.
Ten cultivation plans
For each shortlisted funder: who leads, the first approach and what to say, twelve months of contact, and when and what to ask.
Every route, in one place
Every funder's route and the reason for it, agreed between your team and ours, so you can see where an application will do and where it will not.
A tracker and a team that owns it
A relationship tracker, and a team session where every plan gets an owner. The session slides come to you afterwards as your record.
Part 2: keep the relationships moving.
A relationship has no deadline the way an application does, so it slips down the list. Part 2 gives it one.
Momentum. Once a month, we review every plan with your team and agree the next contact, who makes it and by when.
Course correction. When new information comes in (a new chair, a changed strategy, a closed programme) we update the plans with you.
Skills. Once a month, we teach one relationship skill and apply it to your own funders. We teach your team to do this; we do not do it for them.
Two one-hour sessions a month for six months, with questions by email in between. The price is the same whether your team is one person or ten.
£320 + VAT a month.
Build your Funder Relationships
Ten weeks. A named consultant throughout. All remote.
Around three days of your team’s time.
Investment: £5,336 + VAT, in two instalments
Optional Part 2: £320 + VAT a month for six months.
You have an established trust programme and funders you return to, but your success rate is slipping, some of your biggest funders no longer accept applications, or your team has never been shown how to build a relationship with a trust. It works for a team of one as well as a large team.
This is for you if
It is not
An application writing service; we offer that separately, by the day. Nor do we contact funders for you. The relationships belong to your charity, and we show your team how to build them.
Who you will work with.
Stacey Teece
Trust Fundraising Consultant
Stacey has worked in fundraising since 2005, with more than 20 years in trust, foundation and major donor fundraising at PDSA, Community Resource and now Money Tree Fundraising. Her grants include £400,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. She hosts Let's Chat Trust Fundraising every month. She leads most of these programmes.
Rachal Minchinton
Trust Fundraising Consultant and New Business Manager
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. She runs your first call, and she leads some of these programmes herself.
121 trust contracts delivered for 101 charities since 2018. 76% of our work comes from returning clients and personal recommendation.
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It does not write applications. It decides which of your funders need a relationship, and plans those relationships with you. Application writing is a separate service, charged by the day.
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Yes, if you have an established trust programme. Size counts for less than having funders you return to, and every session works for a team of one.
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On our first call we agree the 50 that hold most of your income and potential. If you need more than that, we will quote for it.
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No. The relationships belong to your charity. We plan them with you and, in Part 2, coach your team while they build them.
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Expect early signs within months, such as a conversation before you apply or an invitation to submit. A change in income usually takes a year or more, because that is how long relationships with funders take.
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Not always. Some teams take the plans and run with them. Part 2 is for teams that want help keeping the work moving and learning the skills as they go. We will say which we think you need before Part 1 ends.
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Around three days over ten weeks: gathering your funder list, routing and scoring your funders, two calls and the team session.
Questions people ask
Find out if this is right for your charity
Book a free 30-minute conversation with Rachal Minchinton, our New Business Manager, to talk through where your trust programme is and whether Build your Funder Relationships would help.
Not ready to talk? Bring your questions to Let's Chat Trust Fundraising, Stacey's free monthly Q&A