GrantBridge UK

    Funds Online alternatives for UK charities

    Funds Online is the Directory of Social Change's subscription funding database. It is well established, researcher-maintained and broad. Organisations usually start looking for an alternative for one of two reasons: the per-licence cost does not fit a team that all need access, or they need somewhere to manage the applications after the research is done.

    This page sets out what Funds Online publishes about itself, where GrantBridge overlaps and where it does not, and which other UK tools are worth shortlisting. Every claim about Funds Online links to a public source, and we say plainly where it is the better choice.

    Last reviewed: 7 August 2026.

    Not the same category. Funds Online is primarily a prospect-research database. GrantBridge is a matching and application-workflow tool. If your gap is research depth, an alternative database may serve you better than a workflow tool. See the full comparison.

    No card required. £49 per month per organisation if you choose to upgrade after the trial, unlimited team members.

    GrantBridge and Funds Online (DSC) side by side

    Based on information each provider publishes publicly. Both services change over time, so check the linked sources before deciding.

    Category GrantBridge Funds Online (DSC)
    Primary focus Match grants to your organisation profile, then track and manage the work Funder discovery and prospect research across a large researcher-maintained database
    Coverage described publicly UK grant opportunities plus workspace features 8,000+ funders: grant-making charities, companies and statutory sources including central and local government and the EU
    Who maintains the data Automated discovery with verification before a grant enters matching In-house team of expert researchers, described as gathered and quality-checked
    Cost model shown publicly £49/mo per organisation, 14-day trial, annual discount listed Subscription from £175 + VAT per week for a single user licence
    Team members Unlimited team members included, no per-seat fees Priced per user licence, so cost scales with users
    Tracking features Deadline tracking and reminders, application status pipeline, evidence storage Dashboard to track funding applied for, save searches and save funders
    Application drafting Application workspace with drafting, answer reuse and versioning (paid plan) Not described on its public pages
    Best fit Teams that need one place to go from match to submitted application Fundraisers doing deep prospect research across a broad UK funder set

    What Funds Online does well

    Funds Online is a paid online database from the Directory of Social Change covering 8,000-plus funders, including grant-making charities, companies and statutory sources such as central and local government and the EU. Its information is described as gathered, quality-checked and written by an in-house team of expert researchers, and the product highlights a fast, intuitive search alongside a user dashboard for tracking funding applied for, saving searches and saving funders. [S1, S2, S3]

    That researcher-written depth is the real draw. If your fundraising approach is prospect-led, where you build a picture of a trust's giving history, trustees and preferences before you write, a curated database of that kind does something automated discovery does not.

    Neutral framing: Funds Online is positioned as funder discovery and prospect research with light tracking. Its public pages do not describe team collaboration, application drafting, or an application workspace.

    Where organisations run into limits

    Two practical constraints come up most often. The first is licensing: published pricing starts from £175 plus VAT per week for a single user licence, which is a per-licence model. [S2, S3] For a small charity where the fundraiser, the CEO and a trustee all want to look at the same shortlist, per-user pricing is a real consideration.

    The second is what happens after discovery. A database tells you who to approach. It does not hold your draft answers, your safeguarding policy, your outcomes data, the deadline calendar for eight live applications, or a record of who is writing which section. Most charities solve that with spreadsheets and shared drives, which is where deadlines get missed.

    Where GrantBridge is different

    GrantBridge starts from your organisation profile: legal structure, region, cause areas, income band and beneficiaries. Grants are matched against that profile with a fit score and a suggested next action, so the shortlist is filtered by eligibility before you read it. Verified grants only enter matching. [S4]

    From there the work stays in one place: deadline tracking and reminders, an application pipeline with status, an evidence bank for reusable answers and supporting documents, and an application workspace for drafting. Pricing is £49 per month per organisation with unlimited team members, so adding a colleague or a trustee costs nothing extra. [S4]

    Read more about that side of the product on our grant management software and grant application software pages.

    When Funds Online is the better choice

    • You need researcher-written funder profiles and giving history for prospect research, rather than eligibility-filtered matches.
    • Your fundraising covers statutory and EU sources as well as trusts, and you want them in one research database. [S1]
    • One or two named people do all the funding research, so a single user licence is not a cost problem.
    • You already have an application process you are happy with, in a CRM or elsewhere, and only need the discovery half.

    Other alternatives worth shortlisting

    • GrantNav (360Giving) is free to use and is the better tool if your question is where grant money has actually gone. It searches awarded grants data published in the 360Giving Data Standard, with filtering and downloads, so it is strong for benchmarking and research and is not an opportunities database. [S5]

    • My Funding Central (Idox) launched as the successor to NCVO's Funding Central after it closed in 2021, aimed at charities and VCSE organisations under specific income thresholds, with free access described for some smaller organisations. [S6] See our My Funding Central comparison.

    • GrantFinder (Idox) is a researcher-supported funding database with news and alerts and a service-led model, with pricing by demo request rather than published rates. [S7] See our GrantFinder comparison.

    Full five-way breakdown with sources on the compare page.

    What to check before you switch or add a tool

    1. 1.Count the seats. Work out how many people genuinely need access. Per-licence and per-organisation pricing produce very different totals at three or more users.
    2. 2.Separate research depth from workflow. Decide which of the two is actually failing you. If both are, running a free trial alongside an existing subscription for a month is the cheapest way to find out.
    3. 3.Check your notice period. Annual subscriptions often renew automatically. Confirm the renewal date before you commit to anything else.
    4. 4.Export what you own. Save your shortlists, saved funders and application notes before any subscription lapses.
    5. 5.Test with a live deadline. Run one real application end to end in the new tool rather than evaluating on a demo dataset.

    Frequently asked questions

    Sources

    Funds Online (DSC) is a product of its respective owner and is not affiliated with GrantBridge. This page summarises publicly published information at the date shown and is reviewed periodically. Where a detail is not stated publicly, we say so rather than guessing.

    Try GrantBridge before you commit

    Fourteen days of grant matching, deadline tracking and saved grants with no card. Upgrade only when you want the application workspace and drafting tools.

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