What does applying for and receiving grants feel like in 2026?
This is what 1,200 people from UK charities told us.
The survey tells two stories: 51% of respondents feel funding practices have improved. 28% say they have got worse.
Have funding practices improved, stayed the same or got worse over the last three years?
Source: Searching for Life Rafts: The Funding Experience Survey 2026 | ivar.org.uk
Funders are getting more of the basics right – clearer processes, better communication, more transparency – and charities are noticing.
Where charities are seeing progress
Source: Searching for Life Rafts: The Funding Experience Survey 2026 | ivar.org.uk
But the experience is still too hard.
Most common words used to describe applying for funding
Source: Searching for Life Rafts: The Funding Experience Survey 2026 | ivar.org.uk
Like scanning an ocean for a single life raft.”
The professional equivalent of banging your head against a brick wall for 8 hours a day.”
Like trying to run up a descending escalator.”
Like an ever-depleting battery – a vicious downward spiral of increasing effort required for less and less return.”
The things that matter most to charities are the rarest practices.
Unrestricted funding and multi-year grants are what charities value most – chosen by 59% and 51% as top priorities.
They are also what charities are least likely to receive – only 13% and 20% of respondents agreed that funders currently offer these.
The least common practices
Source: Searching for Life Rafts: The Funding Experience Survey 2026 | ivar.org.uk
The context is making everything harder.
89% of respondents have been significantly affected by at least one major pressure. Half have been hit by five or more simultaneously.
As people from and working in the migration sector, I feel there is a fear of association with funding us from quite a few funders now.”
The irony is stark: as your chances of success decrease, the amount of work required to apply has gone up.”
The pressures affecting charities today
Source: Searching for Life Rafts: The Funding Experience Survey 2026 | ivar.org.uk
Open and Trusting is making a difference.
Where improvement is being felt, the reasons charities give map directly onto the O&T commitments.
Among those who felt funding had improved a lot, 41% had experienced 11 or more O&T practices – compared to just 5% of those who felt things had got worse.
The more Open and Trusting practices charities experience, the more positive the funding environment feels
Source: Searching for Life Rafts: The Funding Experience Survey 2026 | ivar.org.uk
| Number of O&T practices respondents are experiencing | All respondents | No, they have got worse | Yes, they have improved a little | Yes, they have improved a lot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to 5 | 44% | 66% | 37% | 12% |
| 6 to 10 | 43% | 30% | 51% | 47% |
| 11 to 15 | 12% | 5% | 12% | 41% |
What difference would an O&T approach make to our organisation? It would mean a stronger, more resilient charity; staff who can focus on support rather than survival; services that are consistent, reliable, and high-quality; the ability to innovate instead of firefight.”
There are a few funders who are really fantastic. They set such a good example.”
A message from members of our Open and Trusting steering group
Over 1,200 of you took the time to tell us what applying for funding really feels like. We have read what you said – and it is sobering.
The words you reach for to describe applying for grants – challenging, exhausting, soul-destroying – should not be how the experience feels. The gap between what you tell us you value most (for example receiving flexible (multiyear, unrestricted) funding) and actual funding practices shows a troubling disconnect.
But the same survey also tells a more hopeful story. 51% of you feel funding practices have improved over the last three years. The reasons you give map directly onto Open and Trusting commitments and the practices we commit to as funders. This shows the real value of growing and strengthening our movement.
Funders and charities are not just part of the same sector – we are driven by the same purpose, and answerable to the same communities. Too often, it is the processes that sit between us that get in the way of that shared mission. And process is something we as funders can change.
Open and Trusting was built on the simple premise that the best way to improve grant-making is to listen to the people on the receiving end of it. Thank you for taking the time to tell us about your experiences – your feedback will continue to shape the movement. We know your work is under threat from so many forces, so we’re calling on ourselves and fellow grantmakers to ask one question: what can I do better?
We will keep listening, and keep working until the answers are different.
Ali Ahmed, Ubele
Orla Black, Community Foundation NI
André Clarke, Lloyds Bank Foundation
Gina Crane, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Olly Dawson, Comic Relief
Charlotte Wilson, Co-op Foundation