Fundraising and funding advisory · Charities, CICs and social enterprises · United Kingdom
We look after the money side of your mission. Finding the right funders. Writing the bids that win. Building the plans, budgets and evidence that keep income arriving, year after year.
Every service has a price range on this page. The quotation is fixed in writing before work starts and does not move.
The person you speak to is the person who writes your bid. No junior handover, no templated applications with your name typed in.
Trusts are one stream. We also work on contracts and tenders, corporate partners, social investment, and the plans that make all of them possible.
Schedule of fees
Fees are ranges because the work scales with the size of the organisation and the funding at stake. Every engagement is confirmed with a fixed written quotation before work begins.
The work funders expect to see done already. Most declined applications fail here, not in the writing.
| Service | What you receive | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Funding readiness assessment | A review of your governance, accounts, policies, reserves and evidence against what funders actually check, with a prioritised list of fixes and a funder-fit score. | £495 – £995 |
| Fundraising strategy | A twelve-month income plan: funder map with deadlines and fit, income targets by stream, and the order to pursue them in. | £1,500 – £4,000 |
| Theory of change and outcomes framework | The logic model, outcome indicators and data plan that most funders now ask for, written so your team can use it rather than file it. | £950 – £2,500 |
| Business plan and financial forecasts | A three-year plan with cashflow, budget and sensitivity scenarios, in the format funders, banks and commissioners expect. | £1,250 – £4,000 |
| Governance and policy review | Safeguarding, reserves, conflicts, data protection and financial controls brought up to the standard a funder's due diligence requires. | £750 – £2,000 |
Bids, tenders and proposals, written by people who have sat on the other side of the table.
| Service | What you receive | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Grant-writing portfolio | A researched set of applications to trusts, foundations and lottery funders, each tailored to the funder's criteria, with a submission calendar and tracking sheet. | £2,500 – £7,500 |
| Single bid or bid review | One application written from scratch, or a critique of your own draft returned with tracked suggestions and a funder's-eye reading. | £350 – £1,200 |
| Tender and commissioning response | Local authority, NHS, ICB and government contracts: method statements, social value, pricing schedules and portal submission. | £1,800 – £6,000 |
| Corporate partnership proposal | A sponsorship or charity-of-the-year case with tiered packages, a target list and approach letters. | £900 – £2,800 |
| Social investment readiness | Preparing an application to a social lender or investor: the investment case, repayment model and risk register. | £2,000 – £6,000 |
| Capital appeal and major donor campaign | Case for support, gift table, prospect list and the campaign plan for a building or endowment appeal. | £3,500 – £9,000 |
Evidence you can put in front of a funder, a board or a commissioner.
| Service | What you receive | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Feasibility study | An independent study of a new service, building or venture: need, demand, options, costs and risks, to the standard capital funders require. | £3,000 – £12,000 |
| Impact evaluation report | A structured evaluation of a programme or grant: methodology, data collection, findings and recommendations, suitable for publication. | £2,000 – £8,000 |
| Annual report and impact report | A written and designed report that meets Charity Commission requirements and reads as a case for support. | £1,200 – £4,500 |
| Grant reporting and monitoring | Interim and end-of-grant reports to funders, with the monitoring data gathered and presented for you. | £400 – £1,500 per report |
| Social value and SROI assessment | A social return on investment calculation for tenders and commissioners, with the evidence base documented. | £1,800 – £5,500 |
How you look to a funder who has never met you.
| Service | What you receive | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Professional charity website | A fast, accessible site built to convert visitors into donors, volunteers and referrals, with a donation route and the page a funder will check. | £1,000 – £5,000 |
| Branding and communications package | Logo, colour and type system, templates for bids, reports and social channels, and a one-page case for support. | £750 – £2,500 |
| Case for support and donor pack | The document a trustee can hand to a potential major donor or corporate partner. | £650 – £1,800 |
| Funder-ready photography and film brief | A brief and shot list for a local photographer or filmmaker, so your images do the work in bids and reports. | £300 – £800 |
| Major capital project advisory | End-to-end support on a building, land or large equipment project: option appraisal, funding stack, capital applications and opening plan. | By quotation |
All fees exclude VAT where applicable. Ranges are indicative starting points; the written quotation is fixed. Registered charities with annual income under £100,000 may ask about our reduced-rate band.
Ongoing arrangements
One-off projects fix one problem. Income needs looking after all year. These arrangements keep the pipeline full and the reporting on time.
A fixed monthly fee for a fixed amount of senior time: bids written, reports submitted, funders stewarded, and a monthly pipeline review with your chief executive or chair.
£750 – £3,000per month · three-month minimum
A membership for small organisations who write their own bids and want a professional in the room. Funder alerts matched to your work, our template library, a monthly funding clinic and priority bid review.
£95per month, or £950 a year
Half-day and full-day sessions for trustees, staff and volunteers, in person or online. Writing winning bids, reading a funder's criteria, building a budget, and governance for funding readiness.
From £145per place · in-house from £1,100 a day
Two-minute readiness check
Eight questions a trust officer asks before reading a word of your application. Answer them and see where you stand. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Readiness score
0 / 16
Most organisations score between 8 and 12 the first time. The gaps are usually quick to close and make a measurable difference to success rates.
Discuss your resultMethod
Most organisations come to us wanting stage three. We will do it, but the ones who start at stage one win more and keep it longer.
A readiness assessment and a frank conversation about what funders will see when they look at you.
Usually two weeksA funder map, income targets and the order of attack, agreed with your board. The strategy becomes the year's work plan.
Three to four weeksBids, tenders and proposals, submitted on a calendar. You approve every application before it goes; nothing leaves in your name without sign-off.
Rolling, by deadlineFunders get their reports on time and well evidenced. Renewals are easier than first grants, and this is where they are won.
Quarterly and at grant endWho we serve
A funder reads your application in about eleven minutes. Our job is to make sure those eleven minutes answer every question before it is asked.The principle behind every bid we write
The Bursar's Journal
Short, practical pieces on what funders are doing, what they are declining, and what to do about it. New notes most weeks.
It is rarely the writing. It is eligibility, evidence of need, and a budget that doesn't add up. The fix for each is cheaper than another declined bid.
Read the note →Overheads are not a sign of inefficiency. Leaving them out tells a funder you don't know what the work costs. Here is how to allocate them in a way funders accept.
Read the note →Local authority and NHS commissioning is underserved by community organisations because the portals look forbidding. They are not. A walk through the first one.
Read the note →Questions we are asked
No. The Fundraising Regulator discourages commission-based fundraising, most trusts will not fund it, and it pushes consultants to chase volume rather than fit. We charge a fixed fee, agreed in writing, and we tell you before you pay if we think the odds are poor.
Sector-wide, around one application in four to one in six succeeds for well-prepared organisations; the national figure for all applications is far lower. A readiness assessment and a properly targeted funder list move you towards the better end. We will give you an honest view for your specific case rather than a general promise.
Yes. The readiness assessment, a single bid review and the Bursar Circle membership are designed for organisations with income under £100,000, and we offer a reduced-rate band for registered charities at that level.
We will prepare everything and, where the portal allows, submit on your behalf. Nothing goes in your name until a named trustee or officer has signed it off in writing.
We draft the response with you. For retainer clients this is included; for project clients it is covered by the original fee for thirty days after submission.
Yes. Capital work starts with a feasibility study, then a funding stack that combines capital grants, community share offers or social investment and a public appeal. It is quoted as a bespoke engagement because every building is different.
Yes, across the United Kingdom. Funders, regulators and tender portals differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and we work to each.
How we conduct ourselves
Fundraising is a regulated profession and a matter of trust. These are the standards you can hold us to, and we would rather lose an engagement than bend one.
We do not take a cut of grants raised. Commission-based fundraising is discouraged by the Fundraising Regulator and most funders will not pay for it.
If an application is unlikely to succeed we say so before you pay for it.
Nothing is submitted in your organisation's name until a named trustee or officer has signed it off.
Your accounts, plans and funder conversations stay between us. We do not publish client lists without written consent.
All work follows the Fundraising Regulator's Code and the Charity Commission's guidance on working with consultants.
Begin here
Thirty minutes, no charge. We will tell you where you stand and what we would do first.
We reply within one working day. If you would rather not wait, the email address opposite reaches us directly.
Write to us
hello@bursarfunding.com
Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm
United Kingdom · in person and online
Before the call
Have to hand your latest accounts, your current funder list if you have one, and the one thing you would do with £50,000 tomorrow. We will do the rest.
For existing clients
Retainer and Circle members: use your named contact's direct line. Bid reviews are turned round in five working days.
For funders and commissioners
If you are a funder with a question about an application we prepared, we are glad to hear from you at the same address.