About Us

The Funding Network (TFN), founded in 2002, enables individuals to join together to fund social change projects. We’ve been described as a marketplace for donors and charities, as the UK’s 1st public, open giving circle, and as the ‘Dragons’ Den’ for charities. We have raised well over £4 million for over 576 diverse local, national and international projects, through TFN Groups in London, the South West, Leeds, Oxford, Manchester, Devon, Toronto and through Youth TFN (YTFN) in London. We are delighted that YTFN recently won Third Sector’s Excellence Award for Best Fundraising.

Why we exist

Giving money is one of the few significant activities that people do alone. We work together, eat together, dance together, yet mostly give alone. It is also an activity that we often feel is both important and confusing: important because we understand the need, confusing because we don’t know where to start, what to support among the plethora of appeals. We wonder what criteria we should use to say yes or no, what kind of giving makes the biggest difference. Our giving is often reactive, seldom strategic. Rarely are we in direct touch with the organisations we support, and even more rarely are we in touch with others asking the same questions, perhaps giving to the same causes.

How it works

At each Funding Event, 4-6 charities present their work. Some projects present themselves while others are presented by a member. The Funding Network’s Selection Panel chooses  4-6 projects from all the projects members put forward (‘sponsor’). There are generally four to six times the number of projects nominated for the limited presenting slots available. The Selection Panel is made up of between 4 and 6 members including at least one Trustee and any member can join.