Our latest Funding Plus report shares findings about the capacity building support needs and experiences of organisations we fund.
Funding Plus is a responsive, demand-led fund that enables organisations to make the most of opportunities, deal with challenges, and commission support they might not otherwise be able to afford or prioritise. Currently, the maximum Funding Plus award is £9,000.
During 2025, we spent £1.1m through Funding Plus, our highest spend to date, driven by growing awareness and increased demand for this type of support. Of the total spend, 81% supported individual consultancy requests from funded organisations (109 grants totalling £891k).
To help us improve our Funding Plus offer, and understand existing and emerging needs, we ask organisations we fund to tell us about their capacity building support needs and experiences. This is the fourth time we’ve run a survey, which has helped us see how things have changed by comparing the results from previous surveys. By sharing the findings, we hope it’s useful to organisations interested in applying for Funding Plus as well as funders who provide capacity building support, or who are considering developing an offer.
Key findings
The survey was sent to 475 organisations with an active grant or social investment as of October 2025. We received 102 responses with a representative spread of sectors, and parts of the UK.
- Accessing Funding Plus: 53% of respondents said they have accessed Funding Plus from Esmée. Based on our own data about Funding Plus, we know that 44% of our active portfolio (210 out of 475 organisations) had accessed Funding Plus, which shows that organisations who had accessed Funding Plus were a little more likely to respond to the survey. 35% of respondents said that had accessed this type of support from another funder and 25% said they had not accessed this type of support from us or another funder.
- Funding Plus support most needed now: Organisations could select up two types of support that would benefit them right now to help us understand organisations’ priorities. As with previous surveys, income generation and fundraising was the highest area of need with 45% saying they could benefit from Funding Plus support in this area. This was closely followed by business development and strategy at 39%.
Diversifying our income streams in the face of rising costs and standstill public funding, plus ever-tougher competition for Trusts and Foundations support, is our number one priority
- Decline in demand: For the same question, we saw a decrease in demand for diversity, equity, and inclusion support and evaluation and governance support when compared to 2018. This doesn’t mean organisations have less need for support in these areas; instead, it highlights the influence of external factors and pressures on support priorities.
- How organisations found support providers: We asked how organisations found a ‘Funding Plus’ provider to work with and recommendations from funders ranked highest, followed by independent research.
The chart below shows what type of Funding Plus support organisations would be of most benefit to them right now. When answering the question, respondents could choose two areas. The chart also reflects findings for the same question in previous surveys in 2023 (187 responses), 2018 (234 responses) and a smaller 2017 survey (81 responses).
Let us know what you think
We are interested to know whether the survey findings reflect your organisation's needs and if not, how else Funding Plus could support you. We’d also love to hear from other funders with ‘beyond funding’ type of support and whether the findings resonate with what you’re seeing too.
If you have any questions or feedback about this report, do get in touch by emailing: shemain@esmeefairbairn.org.uk.
