Help centre / Registers & safeguarding / Give grants with proper checks
Give grants with proper checks
Open Governance, then Grants & due diligence, and select New grant. Record the recipient, amount and purpose, then the checks you made and how you'll monitor the end use. A record with no checks and no monitoring is flagged as a gap.
Why keep this register
When your charity gives money away, the Charity Commission expects you to know who you're giving to, to tie the grant to your charity's own purposes, and to check the money was used as intended. This register holds that evidence in one place, one record per grant or bursary.
Record a grant
- Go to Governance, then Grants & due diligence.
- Select New grant.
- Enter the Recipient and what kind of recipient they are: a charity, an individual, a company, or overseas.
- Add the Amount and Grant date.
- Describe the Purpose and how it furthers your charity's objects.
- Record the Due-diligence checks done, for example identity, eligibility or references.
- Say How the end use is monitored, for example receipts, reports or a visit.
- Select Create grant.
For example, Meadowbank Community Trust gives a £500 training bursary. The record shows who received it, that the treasurer checked the course place was real, and that a receipt from the course provider will confirm the spend.
What the register flags
A grant with no checks recorded and no monitoring recorded is flagged "No checks recorded", so the gap is visible before it becomes a problem. When the money has been spent as intended, tick End use confirmed and move the status to completed.
Linking to a project
If the grant funds one of your projects, link it, so the money and the work it pays for stay connected. You can also note where the evidence is held, for example a link to the signed agreement in your documents.
Common questions
Do small bursaries really need a record? Yes, and a short one is fine. A couple of lines on the checks you made is far better than nothing, and it takes a minute.
Can I delete a grant record? You archive it rather than delete it, and you can restore it later. The history stays intact.