The Guide to New Trusts FAQs

Now that The Guide to New Trusts is published, we thought it might be useful to provide a list of FAQs that we receive about this funding guide. We hope that this article answers any questions you may have. 

1. What is The Guide to New Trusts? 

The Guide to New Trusts is one of DSC’s main funding guides. The purpose of the guideis to provide a concise overview of just over 100 grant-making charities that are newly registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator or the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. The grant-makers that feature in The Guide to New Trusts have never been included in any of DSC’s funding directories before.  

Unlike our other publications, The Guide to New Trusts generally does not include any financial information, as newly registered charities may not have any accounts, which by any means are only required until ten months after their first financial period ends.  

2. Are the new grant-makers listed on the Funds Online website? 

Yes, all of the new charities that feature in this guide can be found on Funds Online.  

3. Does the guide include new grant-makers that will fund organisations and/or projects outside the UK? 

To make the guide as relevant as possible to most of our readers, The Guide to New Trusts focuses on newly registered charities that fund organisations and/or projects within the UK. The guide does on occasion include overseas funders, but only when such funders prioritise funding in the UK. 

4. Does the guide include new charities that will fund organisations and/or projects in Scotland and Northern Ireland? 

The geographical distribution of registered charities is uneven, with most of the new funders in the guide focusing on England and Wales. Charities that have recently registered with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator generally feature in The Guide to New Trusts, albeit to a lesser extent. With Northern Ireland, it depends on the charities that register annually. For example, in the 12th edition The Guide to New Trusts we did not include any funders registered with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland because none met our inclusion criteria. However, the 13th edition contains five newly registered grant-makers that give to organisations and/or projects in Northern Ireland. 

5. Is the guide relevant to organisations that are not registered charities? 

The guide sometimes features new grant-makers that give to non-registered charities or other organisations, like statutory authorities, community organisations or youth clubs. 

6. Is the guide relevant to individuals searching for funding? 

The Guide to New Trusts focuses on new funders that give grants to organisations. On occasion, these new charities will also give grants to individuals; however, giving to individuals is not the focus of this guide.  

7. How often is the guide updated?  

We release a new edition of the guide every year. 

8. How do you conduct research for the guide? 

A small team of researchers works on The Guide to New Trusts. We collect all our information from public sources, mainly through the websites of the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. Where possible, we also look at charities’ websites and/or social media pages, as these can offer further information. 

We look for the following information: 

• Contact details 
• Trustees’ names 
• Where in the world the charity gives grants to 
• What types of organisations the charity gives grants to 
• What types of funding are available to applicants 
• The trust’s eligibility criteria for applicants 
• The application process 

Once we have collected as much relevant information as possible, we organise, edit and enter it into our database. This information is further prepared for publication and released as a printed book and PDF download. 

9. What criteria do you use to compile the list of new grant-makers? 

The Guide to New Trusts includes newly registered charities that: 

• Have registered within the previous financial year (the guide released in 2024 features grant-makers registered in 2023/24) 
• Have listed their main charitable activities as grant giving to organisations 
• Operate within the UK 
• Have a large beneficial area  
• Give grants for purposes beneficial to a wide range of people, like education or health 
• Accept unsolicited applications  
• Have not been registered as charities before 

We exclude charities that: 

• Have registered before the previous financial year (any relevant grant-makers would have been included in the previous editions of the guide) 
• Have not listed their main charitable activities as grant giving to organisations (e.g. they may have only listed grant giving to individuals or they may be service providers) 
• Operate exclusively outside the UK 
• Have a small beneficial area (e.g. a single town or county)  
• Give grants for specific purposes (e.g. medical research for a rare health condition) 
• Do not accept unsolicited applications  
• Have been registered as a charity before and are re-registered charities

1. Is there a PDF version of the guide? 

Yes, both print and PDF versions of The Guide to New Trusts are available on DSC’s website.   

If this article has left any questions unanswered, please send your question(s) to our customer service at cs@dsc.org.uk or the research team at research@dsc.org.uk. You may also directly contact the authors at kjayasuriya@dsc.org.uk or jthrelfall@dsc.org.uk. If you wish to purchase The Guide to New Trusts 2024/25, you can do so here.