Frequently Asked Questions for Funders

Not at the moment but this is a feature we are working on. We suggest using a general email address accessible to several people within your organisation if possible.

As a workaround, you can set up a “group list or email address” with your email provider that will notify several members of your organisation at once.

Signing up to ActionFunder is free. Signing up and setting up your profile will allow you to see all the non-profits you match with – for free!

Businesses of all sizes and shapes are welcome on ActionFunder. Foundations, Local Authorities and philanthropists can also use the platform too.

It’s free and easy to sign up to ActionFunder. Simply go to the sign up page here and follow the instructions. Let us know if you have any questions at

You can start funding projects as the applications come in. We recommend leaving your fund open until the deadline because we typically see a spike increase just before the deadline.

This will depend on your fund requirements e.g when you would like to select who to fund and when you want to be able to celebrate the impact results. We recommend 2-3 weeks is sufficient to find you the most relevant projects.

There are currently over 4,000 non-profits looking for funding on ActionFunder. Each non-profit can have multiple projects running at once – so there is plenty of choice! Plus, creating your own fund will attract new non-profits to join and attract new projects – so what you match with at the start is not what you’ll finish with.

We always encourage funders to try to maximise the impact of their fund by allocating it all. However if that’s not possible, there are a few options available to you:

• Top up the fund – to enable you to fund one more project in full
• Offer projects more funding and increase the scope of the project
• Retain any residual budget as a ‘reward’ pot – to offer to your grantees as a reward for the best progress ‘update’ post or impact survey.

Once the fund has reached our account, ActionFunder handles the payment to the non-profits.

We recommend that you select the projects you’d like to fund within 2 weeks of your fund closing. This is to ensure projects you have matched with don’t get funded by other funders.

No, 100% funding is key to our value exchange for Non-profits. We recommend that you donate the amount requested by the project.

Yes! We highly recommend selecting your grantees during a judging panel with team members or relevant stakeholders – this is something our ActionFunder Service team can facilitate for you if needed. It’s a fun and engaging way to discuss your shortlist and debate who should receive funding.

All non-profits registering on ActionFunder are required to provide information and data about their organisation, including charity number (where applicable) and contact details for three members of staff / representatives.

Once the Funder has selected a project for funding, and prior to funds being sent, the ActionFunder team carries out a Non-profit authenticity check. This includes researching and contacting the group to confirm key aspects of the Non-profit’s profile including legal set up, project background, previous funding received and social media presence. On receipt of their bank details we also carry out thorough verification checks before approving any grant payments.

Any Non-profit that fails to pass our checks will be deemed ineligible to receive funding. The Non-profit’s account will be suspended until such time as they are able to satisfy our due diligence requirements. You, as the Funder, will be able to select another project from your shortlist.

Yes, this is something we encourage! You can contact your grantees by using the contact details provided on their ActionFunder profile.

On your fund’s page, click on the “manage fund” button or from your dashboard, click on the settings wheel on your fund and “managed fund”. From here you can see your portfolio of projects, monitor updates and review the results in real time.

Funders can contact funded projects to schedule a visit with them. Non-profits are not required by ActionFunder to meet with the funders so the possibility to visit projects will solely depend on them.

All funded projects are required to post light touch updates to keep you posted on their progress – and give you positive news stories to share. Once a project completes, they submit an in-depth impact survey which is used to fill your impact report. This provides an overview of the impact of your fund and also your organisation’s total impact.