Edinburgh4Community lets you quickly and easily search through hundreds of Government, Lottery, charitable trust and other funds available on a European, national, regional and local basis. It is suitable for charities, community groups, social enterprises and voluntary organisations.

Access
Edinburgh4Community is free to use and available 24/7, all you need is internet access –
1. Open up the internet and go to Edinburgh4Community 

Registration
The first time you use Edinburgh4Community click on the Register tab (top right-hand side). This is to create an account to save your searches and set up auto-alerts. The only fields you have to fill in are an email address and password.

How to search for funding
1. Click the Search for funding button

2.  Use the drop down boxes to answer the About Your Organisation & Project questions

3. Click on Search Now

Search results
A summary of suitable schemes will be listed on the screen in geographical order (starting with local all the way up to European).

If there are too many to look through you can use the Filter results menu on the right-hand side to restrict by type of funder; geographical scope; or whether it’s open for applications.  You can also Sort results by: deadline, funding body, maximum value, status etc.

At this point you can click on the Save search button on the right-hand side of the screen – this puts your search results in to a Saved searches folder so you can view them at any time. Give the search a name and tick the email notifications box to automatically be emailed when new sources of funding fitting your criteria are available.

Individual schemes
1. Look at the summary information to decide whether you want more information about each fund.

2. Click on the scheme’s title to get the full scheme details. This will give you application dates, key criteria, eligible expenditure, contact details and usually the application form.

3. If you particularly like a scheme you can click on the Save this item button at the right-hand side to save it to your Saved searches folder.

4. Use the browser’s back button to return to the list of funds.

Tip: It’s important not just to run one search, but multiple ones. Remember to go back to the beginning where you filled out the information about your organisation – you may have several organisational focuses or need funding for different things. Take some time to think about these and make sure you run searches for each of them.

Keyword searching
If you know the name of a specific fund or have a specific theme or topic in mind it is quicker to keyword search. You may get a lot of results that are not appropriate for your organisation though so this option should be used sparingly –
1. Click the Search for funding button.

2. Enter word or phrase in the Keyword search box and click on Search Now.

Producing a report
You can create a text report of funding sources that can be printed off or emailed –
1. When you have completed a search and have the results up on screen there is a Select items box at the right-hand side that you can use to select all schemes (or tick the box next to individual schemes to select a few) then click on Produce Report.

2. Enter a report title and who it’s prepared for (if appropriate) and click OK.

Additional help on Edinburgh4Community
• Click on the blue Events tab to find details of any funding events happening in Edinburgh.

• View the Local Support section to find details of Edinburgh specific funding, advice sheets and local organisations.

• Click on the Community Grants Fund link on the bottom right-hand side of the home page to find out about a small grant’s scheme run by Edinburgh’s Neighbourhood Partnerships.

• Use the Browse Funding section to get an overview of the different types of funding available.

• Keep an eye on the Local News section for information about Edinburgh funding.