Some trusts are able to respond quickly if they have small grants programmes, but these are few and far between. The vast majority of trusts are run on a part-time basis, even if they distribute several million pounds a year; as such, their administrative capabilities can be highly constrained. If you want acknowledgement of your application, it's usually best to include a reply-paid envelope. Some trusts will send representatives to visit you or your project; find out exactly what they want to see before making an appointment. Remember, also, that all trusts get more applications than they can fund; only about one in four applications are ultimately successful and over half of the applications a trust receives are ineligible. Take great care in what trust you apply to, as you could be wasting your own time as much as theirs.

• making applications
• money
• funding