Short-term funding remains the norm for UK charities, forcing trustees onto a treadmill of constant applications, short-term thinking and perpetual financial anxiety. Most spend more time chasing grants than delivering their mission.

The NCVO’s warning about ‘the big squeeze’ has proven accurate. 2025 has brought a perfect storm of funding cuts, soaring costs and increased demand – making one-year grants precisely the kind of instability charities can least afford.

Multi-year grants offer a different path: the stability to plan beyond next quarter’s bank balance. For trustees, juggling governance duties with operational realities, funding, (which spans two, three or five years) transforms how your charity operates.

Yet these grants remain elusive, not because your work lacks merit but because funders seek specific qualities in organisations they’ll back over the long term. Before chasing applications, it’s worth understanding what actually makes an organisation fundable across multiple years.

Why Multi-Year Grants Are So Coveted

Securing a grant that guarantees funding for multiple years is invaluable for strategic planning and impact. It offers something most charities desperately need: stability and breathing room.

With guaranteed income for 2–3 years or more, nonprofits can spend less time scrambling for the next grant and more time delivering on their mission. In practical terms, a multi-year grant allows charity leaders to set longer-term objectives and invest in projects that take time to bear fruit.

The Challenge for Small Charities

While all nonprofits benefit from multi-year support, small charities, (often with modest incomes and few staff) face unique hurdles in securing and managing funding:

Disproportionate Administrative Burden

Small charities typically lack dedicated fundraising teams. Grant applications and reporting fall on already overstretched staff or volunteers. Research highlights that multi-year funding is, “especially important for small charities that lack dedicated fundraising staff” since their program staff end up spending too much time chasing short-term funds instead of delivering services.

Moreover, complex application processes hit small organisations hardest – many report that the time spent applying for funding directly detracts from service delivery. One small charity leader lamented, “It’s exhausting to constantly justify why we exist. We are here because the need is real.” This shows how onerous repeated applications can be for a tiny charity.

Instability and Reinventing to Fit Funding

Short-term grants create instability that small charities struggle to absorb. With scant reserves and few other income streams, a gap or delay in funding can threaten their existence. Leaders also note that they often feel pressure to, “keep reinventing ourselves just to fit funding criteria” in order to win grants.

Funders frequently encourage innovation or new projects but what small charities truly need is stable support for proven work. Chasing trendy project funding year after year, rather than receiving core or long-term support, can pull a small charity away from its mission focus and strain its capacity.

Being Overlooked by Funders

There is a perception, (not entirely unfounded) that many funders are risk-averse and tend to favour larger, well-established charities. Smaller charities often worry that their impact – however excellent on the community level – is overlooked due to conservative funding policies that view small organisations as higher risk.

Indeed, a 2025 report on “The Power of Small” found that many small charities struggle to secure core, unrestricted or multi-year funding, and this was identified as a primary barrier limiting their long-term planning ability. The funding system’s structure can inadvertently sideline small nonprofits, making multi-year grants even harder for them to attain.

How to Land a Multi-Year Grant

Winning a multi-year grant is challenging, but not impossible, even for smaller charities. It requires strategy, preparation and effective communication of your charity’s strengths. Below are key strategies and tips to improve your chances of securing multi-year funding:

Build and Showcase a Strong Track Record

Funders entrust multi-year support to organisations that can prove they deliver results. Document your impact – gather data and success stories from past projects to demonstrate the difference your charity makes.

Use both numbers, (e.g. people helped, outcomes achieved) and human stories to paint a compelling picture. In your proposal, highlight your organisation’s accomplishments and any positive evaluations or testimonials from previous funders.

If your charity is newer or small, you can emphasise the experience of your team or trustees, and any pilot project results. The goal is to convince funders that you have the capability and expertise to make good use of a grant year after year.

Demonstrate Financial Stability and Good Governance

Multi-year grants often undergo extra scrutiny of a charity’s finances. Be prepared to show that your charity is financially sound and well-managed. Ensure your accounts and annual reports are up to date and transparent – funders may review these.

It’s wise to develop a robust reserves policy and explain it, as recommended by the Charity Commission. A reserves policy, (how much savings the charity keeps and why) gives funders confidence that you manage money prudently and can handle unforeseen events.

In practice, this means trustees should be able to justify the level of reserves: not too low, (avoiding insolvency risk) but not excessive either.

Aside from reserves, demonstrate strong governance by mentioning trustee expertise, risk management practices and any quality accreditations.

Research and Align with Funder Priorities:

A common reason proposals, (even strong ones) fail is a lack of alignment with the funder’s goals. For multi-year grants, this alignment is crucial – funders are effectively partnering with you for the long term.

Research potential funders thoroughly. Look at their mission, the types of projects and organisations they have funded before and their public statements or strategies.

Identify funders who care about your cause and are open to multi-year support. Many grant-making trusts and foundations explicitly state whether they offer multi-year funding or prefer one-off grants. Target those that do and tailor your application to mirror their language and priorities.

Make the Case for a Multi-Year Commitment

When crafting your proposal, position multi-year funding as essential to achieving the impact the funder seeks. Be explicit about why a one-year grant would be insufficient for the outcomes you plan.

Perhaps the issue you address involves deep-rooted challenges that require sustained intervention – say so, and back it up with reasoning or evidence. You might note, for example, that research shows meaningful social change requires consistent effort over several years.

If your project has distinct phases, describe what you will accomplish in Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, etc., to show you have a long-term roadmap. Emphasise how each year’s funding builds on the last to magnify impact. By educating the funder on the timeline of change, you help them see the value of a multi-year grant.

Outline Your Sustainability Plan

Funders want to know their money will have a lasting impact, beyond the grant period. In a multi-year funding request, it’s important to address the question: “What happens when the grant ends?”

Demonstrate that you are thinking ahead. Outline concrete strategies for sustaining the project’s outcomes after the grant.

This might include community buy-in, (e.g. training local volunteers to continue programs) developing future income streams, (like launching a social enterprise arm or diversifying fundraising) or commitments from partners to step-in later.

For example, you could explain that during the grant, you will build capacity or evidence that will enable you to attract government funding or corporate sponsors later on.

Present a Clear Budget and Phased Timeline

A multi-year proposal should come with a well-thought-out budget that spans the entire grant period. Break down how much funding is needed for each year and for what purposes.

Funders will look to see that you’ve anticipated how costs might change over time, (for instance, scaling up staff in year 2 or tapering costs, if certain activities become self-sufficient).

Likewise, include a timeline with milestones for each year – this demonstrates planning and allows the funder to visualise the progression of the project.

A clear multi-year budget and timeline also facilitate an open conversation with the funder: they may be willing to commit to two years instead of one, or three instead of two, if they see exactly what their money will accomplish in those extra years.

Cultivate Relationships and Trust

Behind many multi-year grants is a strong relationship between the funder and the charity. Building that trust starts before you submit an application.

Whenever possible, engage with potential funders informally – attend webinars, Q&A sessions or networking events they host.

Some foundations welcome a brief inquiry call or an email synopsis of your project; use those opportunities to get feedback and signal your professionalism.

Leverage Pilot Projects and Partnerships

If your charity has never had a multi-year grant, consider taking a stepping-stone approach. You might start by seeking a one-year grant as a pilot for a larger idea. Deliver it successfully and gather data to build credibility for a subsequent multi-year proposal to the same funder or others.

Funders often like to see proof of concept. Additionally, for small charities, partnering with larger organisations or coalitions can open doors to multi-year funding, which might otherwise be out of reach.

For example, a small charity could join a consortium bid for a three-year project funded by the National Lottery Community Fund or a government program. In such arrangements, the collective track record and capacity can give funders confidence, while your charity still benefits from the multi-year commitment.

Think creatively about collaboration as a route to longer-term grants – just ensure roles and contributions are clearly defined.

Conclusion: Patience, Persistence, and Positioning

Multi-year grants may feel like the holy grail: immensely valuable yet hard to attain – but the landscape is shifting. Charities are vocal about needing change, and increasing numbers of funders are listening.

With thorough research, careful proposal development and emphasis on trust-building, your charity can improve its odds substantially.

At Charity Accounting Partners, we help trustees build the financial infrastructure that wins funder confidence. From SORP-compliant accounts and robust reserves policies to management reporting that demonstrates your impact, we provide the expertise that positions your charity for long-term funding success.

Book a discovery call to discuss how we can strengthen your financial foundation and support your multi-year funding ambitions.