About Course
Fundraising for Schools & Academies
CPD Accredited – July 2026 Edition
A comprehensive, UK-focused training course covering everything schools, academies and multi-academy trusts need to know about winning grants from trusts, foundations and other funding bodies, grounded in charity law, the Fundraising Regulator’s Code and 20 years of professional experience.
Who Is This Course For?
This course has been designed for anyone involved in fundraising or grant development in a school, academy, multi-academy trust or school-linked charitable foundation in the UK. Whether you are a:
- Headteacher or principal responsible for generating additional income for your school
- Business manager or bursar managing grant applications and funding relationships
- Trustee of an academy trust or school charitable foundation with financial oversight responsibility
- PTA or school Friends committee member coordinating fundraising activity
- Teacher or pastoral lead with a project idea and the ambition to fund it
- Volunteer or parent supporting a school’s fundraising efforts
This course will give you the knowledge, tools and legal grounding to pursue grant funding with confidence. No prior fundraising experience required.
Course Overview
6 modules · Average 3 to 4 hours to complete · Work at your own pace
The Funding Landscape for Schools & Academies
Before writing a single word, you need to understand the landscape, and a crucial question many schools get wrong from the start: are you actually eligible? This module explains the legal status of different school types (academies, maintained schools, MATs, PTAs), which types of school can apply to which types of funder, and what the concept of additionality means for schools, the principle that funders will not pay for things the government is already obligated to provide. Get this wrong and no application will succeed, however well written.
Building Your Compelling Case for Support
Your case for support is the foundation of every successful application. This module shows you how to build one, how to evidence local need with data, how to articulate the difference your project will make, and how to describe your beneficiaries with the specificity that funders respond to. You will learn how to focus on the outcomes your project will achieve, and how to write about pupils in a way that is honest, dignified and in line with the Code of Fundraising Practice and UK GDPR.
Finding Your Perfect Funder Match
Strategic prospect research is the single biggest determinant of your success rate. This module is a practical guide to finding the right funders for your school, from education-specific trusts and foundations to the National Lottery Community Fund, community foundations and corporate funders. You will learn how to use the Charity Commission register, 360Giving and GrantNav to research what funders have actually given to schools, and how to build a shortlist of high-probability prospects.
Crafting Winning Applications
The difference between a good application and a funded one often comes down to a handful of specific techniques. This module shares the insider knowledge that separates consistently successful school fundraisers from those who apply repeatedly without success. You will learn how to structure an application to guide an assessor to a yes, how to answer common application questions with precision and confidence, and how to avoid the most common mistakes that get school applications rejected.
Budgets, Compliance & UK Best Practice
Every grant application requires a budget, and for schools, there are specific legal and compliance considerations that make school budgets more complex than most. This module covers how to build a compliant project budget, what additionality means in financial terms, how to handle VAT and employer costs, what the Fundraising Regulator’s Code requires of school fundraisers, and the data protection obligations that arise when collecting and using pupil data in applications and reports.
Relationships, Reporting & Repeat Funding
The most successful school fundraisers build long-term relationships with funders that generate repeat grants year after year. This module covers the stewardship principles that make the difference, how to report on your project’s outcomes in a way that excites funders, how to thank funders appropriately, how to handle underspends and project changes compliantly, and how to turn a one-off grant into a long-term funding partnership that benefits your school for years to come.
What You Will Learn
On completion of all modules, you will be able to:
- ✓ Understand the legal status of different school types and which funders each is eligible to approach
- ✓ Apply the principle of additionality to identify genuinely fundable projects and activities
- ✓ Build a compelling, evidence-based case for support that funders respond to
- ✓ Conduct strategic funder research using the Charity Commission register, 360Giving and other authoritative tools
- ✓ Write a funding application that is precisely structured, persuasively written and free of the most common mistakes
- ✓ Build a compliant project budget that reflects UK employer costs, VAT considerations and additionality principles
- ✓ Deliver excellent grant stewardship that secures repeat funding and builds long-term funder relationships
Benefits for You and Your Organisation
✓ Win Grants Your School Needs
Stop losing applications on eligibility, budgeting or the additionality principle. This course gives you the knowledge to target the right funders, write strong applications and win the funding your school needs.
✓ Save Time and Energy
Strategic funder research means fewer wasted applications and more time on the projects that matter. This course shows you how to identify high-probability prospects quickly and reliably.
✓ Stay Legally Compliant
Understand your obligations under charity law, the Code of Fundraising Practice and UK GDPR, and manage your fundraising activity with confidence that you are on the right side of the rules.
✓ Build Sustainable Funding Relationships
One-off grants are useful. Long-term funder relationships that generate repeat income year after year are transformational. This course shows you how to build them.
✓ A Resource You Will Keep Using
Download and save the course for future reference. Return to it every time you are preparing a new application, building a budget or developing a new funder relationship.
✓ Recognised Achievement
Complete all six modules and receive a personalised, printable CPD-accredited certificate of completion to support your professional development.
– Amie Elliott, GeckoFundraising Ltd
How It Works
Complete your purchase using our secure online card payment. Access to the full course is granted immediately upon payment being received, no waiting, no delay.
Work through the modules online at any time, at your own pace. Your progress is saved automatically in your browser, so you can dip in and out across multiple sessions to fit around your work. Please complete the course on the same device and browser throughout, as your progress is stored locally and will not transfer between devices.
Once complete, save the course as a PDF to keep on your desktop. Return to it whenever you need it, a practical reference resource you will use again and again.
Complete all modules and generate your personalised, printable CPD-accredited certificate of completion instantly, at no extra cost, a record of your professional development to share with trustees, employers or commissioners.
Course Investment
One-off payment including VAT · No subscription · Instant access on payment
- Complete online at your own pace, 3 to 4 hours on average
- Full course available to download and save for future reference
- Links to authoritative UK legislation and official guidance throughout
- Personalised, printable CPD-accredited certificate of completion on finishing all modules
- Course content covers the legal framework for charities in England and Wales · Also available in course bundles and the Full Catalogue (£649 including VAT)
Access to the course content is granted immediately upon receipt of your completed online card payment. You will be able to start learning straight away.
Important: complete this course on one device
Your progress, knowledge-check answers and certificate details are saved locally in the browser you use to open the course. They are not stored on our server and will not transfer to another device, or to a different browser on the same device. Please start and finish the course using the same device and browser. Clearing your browser history or site data, or using a private or incognito window, will also erase your progress. Your downloadable copy of the course is unaffected and can be opened anywhere.
Course Content
Fundraising for Schools & Academies
Fundraising for Schools & Academies