THE GIVING GUIDE / A PRACTICAL BEGINNING
A proportionate route from the wish to help to a contribution that is useful, understood and open to review.
Describe the people, place or issue you care about and the change you hope to support. Separate your own motivation from evidence of need. Keep the first version provisional: listening may change it.
Set an honest boundary around your available time, skills or resources. Avoid a commitment that depends on uninterrupted enthusiasm. A modest, dependable contribution can be more helpful than an ambitious promise that cannot be kept.
Speak with people affected and existing organisations. Ask what is working, where the gaps are and what supporters often misunderstand. Look for local knowledge and different perspectives rather than only the most polished presentation.
Respect people’s time. Explain why you are asking, what you may be able to offer and what you cannot promise. Do not invite a long application or unpaid proposal simply to satisfy your curiosity.
Find the organisation through an independent route. Review its stated purpose, public information and relevant official registration. Ask how the proposed support fits its work and whether there are material restrictions, conflicts or risks to understand.
Check payment instructions through a trusted channel before giving. Be cautious about pressure, unexpected requests and changed bank details. Where a contribution involves vulnerable people, specialist activities or cross-border arrangements, use appropriate professional guidance rather than this general framework alone.
Record the contribution, its purpose, any restrictions and the timescale. Explain decision-making, reporting, privacy and recognition expectations. Ask what flexibility is needed and how changes will be discussed.
If offering professional skills, agree scope, ownership, handover and support. A donated tool that nobody can maintain is not automatically a useful gift. If offering time, complete the organisation’s induction and follow its supervision and safeguarding processes.
Agree a small set of useful questions and a sensible review date. Ask what happened, what changed, whose experience is missing and what should be adapted. Use information the organisation already collects where it can answer the question.
Acknowledge uncertainty. Do not demand proof of long-term impact from a short activity or infer success from a single moving story. Keep reporting effort in proportion to the support and use the findings to make a decision.
Discuss what comes next before a contribution ends. Be clear about renewal decisions and the limits of future support. Avoid leaving an organisation to discover a funding gap or unsupported system at the last moment.
Capture what both sides learned. A decision to stop can be responsible when the work is no longer suitable, but the transition should consider commitments, people and practical consequences.
Keep private personal information and confidential case details out of a shared planning document.
Primary-source reading to help you check identities and examine how giving relationships work. Guidance and registration systems differ across jurisdictions.
For charities registered in England and Wales, use the Charity Commission’s official search. Other jurisdictions have their own registers.
Find charity information ↗Find the organisation independently and verify contact and payment details through a trusted route. Do not let pressure replace careful checking.
Official charity information ↗IVAR’s Open and Trusting Grant-making work offers further reading on the practices and burdens of funding relationships.
Open and Trusting Grant-making ↗