If the funding bids, the accounts, the trustees and the newsletter all end up with you, this is for you. Calculators, ready written policies and step by step guides for the jobs you have to get done.
It is free. You sign in with your email so we can keep your work for next time.
Type in two figures.
This uses the basic rate of tax, which gives you 25p for every £1. The full calculator also covers small cash gifts. Open it →
Follow the steps and you will have a full set of answers in about ninety minutes, cut to the funder's word limits, with a budget that matches.
Start the application →Copy one piece of wording into ChatGPT and you get a list of trusts that fit your cause and your area, with how to apply to each.
Find funders →Build an agenda with timings so the meeting finishes when it should, and print it or paste it into an email.
Build the agenda →Start from a policy that is already written. Change the names and details to fit your charity, then take it to your trustees to agree.
Find a policy →Type in four figures from your accounts and see how many months you could keep going if the income stopped.
Work out your reserves →The guide takes you from registering with HMRC to your first claim, one step at a time.
Read the guide →Answer a few questions about your governance, your data or your safeguarding. You see what is fine and what to fix first.
Pick a check →Watch a few short videos. You will know what the law expects, what never to type in, and how to save real time.
Watch the first one →Free consultancy, free software and grants that are there for small charities, and how to claim each one.
See what you can claim →Type in your own figures and get an answer you can take to your trustees. Reserves, cash flow, Gift Aid, risk registers, filing dates and more.
Open →Get a first draftWording you copy into ChatGPT or a similar tool so it drafts your bid, policy or letter. We fill in your charity's details for you.
Open →LearnShort videos that show you how to use AI safely at your charity, from what the law expects to writing a funding bid.
Open →Check how you are doingAnswer a few questions about your charity and see where you are strong, where you are exposed and what to fix first.
Open →Step by stepInstructions for one job, such as a grant application or a newsletter, timed so you can do it in one sitting.
Open →Already writtenPolicies, letters and board papers. Change the names and details to fit your charity and take them to your trustees.
Open →For trusteesShort reads on what the law expects of trustees, with questions to ask at the next meeting.
Open →In more depthLonger walk throughs for doing one thing properly, such as claiming Gift Aid or writing your first AI policy.
Open →How others did itHow other small charities tackled the same problem, and what they would watch out for next time.
Open →A plan to followOne small task a day for thirty days, if you want to start using AI and do not know where to begin.
Open →Free help elsewhereFree consultancy, software, training and grants that other organisations offer small charities, and how to claim each one.
Open →JargonWhat the words mean, explained for someone who runs a small charity.
Open →AnswersShort answers to the questions small charities ask most.
Open →Why we built this
A national charity has someone to write the bids, someone to keep the policies up to date and someone to read what the regulator says. You probably have yourself, and an evening. Most of the advice out there is written for organisations far bigger than yours, or it costs money you do not have.
So we wrote this for you. Everything here follows the guidance from the Charity Commission, OSCR, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, HMRC, the ICO and the Fundraising Regulator, and tells you where Scotland or Northern Ireland is different. It is free, and it will stay free.
Not sure what the law expects of you as a trustee? Read this before your meeting to learn the six duties from the Charity Commission's guidance, the seven tests for a decision that will bear scrutiny, how to handle a conflict of…
Read the briefing →Recipe · 90 minutesUse this when you have a funder's application form open and need to get the answers written. In 90 minutes you will have a full set of answers cut to the funder's word limits, a budget that matches them and a list of attachments…
Open the recipe →Template · policyUse this when your charity has no written reserves policy, or only a single line about holding a few months of costs with no reasoning behind it, or when a funder, independent examiner or the regulator has asked to see one.
Open the template →Guide · 60 minutesGift Aid lets you reclaim the basic rate of Income Tax on every eligible pound an individual gives you, which at a basic rate of 20% is 25p in the pound, and HMRC pays it straight into your bank account.
Read the guide →GlossaryPricing a project or contract so that it covers its direct costs and a fair share of the overheads that make it possible, such as rent, insurance, management time and finance.
Open the glossary →Worked exampleAn independent food bank in a Yorkshire market town runs from a church hall three mornings a week. It has one part-time coordinator, a rota of volunteers and a board of six trustees.
Read the example →The AI course
The course is a set of short videos. Watch one over lunch and try it the same afternoon. You do not need to know anything about AI to start.
Two minutes
Answer five quick questions and we will tell you where to start.
If raising the money falls to you. Funders, bids, donors, appeals and events.
Open →For trustees and whoever supports them. Meetings, policies and decisions.
Open →For whoever looks after the money. Budgets, reserves, reports and Gift Aid.
Open →For the work itself. Keeping people safe, keeping records, showing what changes.
Open →For telling people what you do. Website, social media, press and newsletters.
Open →For looking after staff, volunteers and yourself.
Open →If you want to use AI and do not want to get it wrong.
Open →A plan for taking your staff or your trustees through the course together.
Open →
Who this is for
The woman who runs the youth club on Tuesday nights. The couple behind the food bank. The retired nurse who still does home visits. If that sounds like you, or like the people you work alongside, this was made for you. You should not have to be an accountant, a lawyer and a fundraiser to keep a small charity going.
Signing in
Give us your name, your charity and your email. We send you a link, you click it, and you are in. There is no password to remember and nothing to pay.
We ask you to sign in so the site can be useful to you. It keeps the figures you type into the calculators, remembers which videos you have watched, saves the pages you want to come back to, and puts your charity's name into the wording you copy.
Questions
Yes. It is written for charities, CIOs, community groups and social enterprises with an income under about £1m, and most of all for the ones where one or two people do nearly everything. If you have no fundraiser, no finance person and no one to do the communications, you are exactly who we had in mind.
Yes. There is nothing to pay now and nothing to buy later. You sign in with your email so the site can keep your work, and that is all we ask.
Everything follows the guidance from the regulators, including the Charity Commission, OSCR, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, HMRC, the ICO and the Fundraising Regulator, and we tell you where Scotland or Northern Ireland is different. Where a figure changes from year to year we send you to the regulator's own page for it. For anything legal or financial, have someone qualified check it before you rely on it.
No. A lot of what is here has nothing to do with AI, such as the calculators, the policies and the guides. If you would like to try it, the course starts from the very beginning and shows you how to stay safe, including what you must never type in about the people you support.
No. We email you a link when you ask to sign in, and your results when you ask for them. You only get the monthly email if you tick the box.