Can a grant pay for software or a website?

Funders fund outcomes, not technology

A funder isn't buying you a CRM. It is buying more people helped, better support or a service that reaches people it didn't reach before. Technology gets funded when it is clearly part of how that happens. A volunteer rota system that frees ten staff hours a week for frontline work is an outcome. A new website because the old one looks dated is not.

So write every tech cost into the project, next to the outcome it serves, rather than as a separate shopping list at the end.

What a typical small-grants programme covers

Take the National Lottery's Awards for All England, one of the most common first grants for small charities. It offers £300 to £20,000, and it can pay for equipment and running costs as well as staff and training costs. It doesn't name software or websites, so describe technology by what it does: laptops for the people delivering the project are equipment, a subscription for the funded period is a running cost, and teaching volunteers a new system is training.

Every funder words this differently, so read its list of eligible costs first. If technology isn't mentioned either way, a short email to the funder usually settles it.

Costs that usually fit, and how to describe them

What funders rarely pay for

• Costs you have already paid. Most funders won't pay for anything bought before the grant was awarded.
• Writing the application. Awards for All, for one, won't pay for someone else to write your bid.
• A redesign for its own sake. 'Our website looks old' is a reason, not an outcome.
• Open-ended support. A monthly fee with no end date worries funders unless you show how you will cover it.

The question that sinks tech bids: what happens after?

Funders know how often a system goes quiet when the grant ends. Answer the question before they ask it: what the technology costs to run each year, who owns it, who looks after it and how you will pay. Building on free or low-cost tiers helps a lot here, because a small running cost is easy to absorb.

Ownership matters too. Make sure your organisation owns the accounts, the data and the code, not the person who built it, so the work survives staff changes and a change of supplier.

A quick check before you submit

• Every tech cost sits next to the outcome it supports.
• Each figure comes from a real quote or price list, not a guess.
• Running costs after the grant are written down, with who pays.
• Your organisation will own the system, the accounts and the data.
• If the system holds personal data, you know what you collect, why and who can see it, as UK GDPR expects.

Finding a funder that fits

Search for funders by the work you do and the people you help, not by the word 'technology'. My free grant finder searches open UK grants by who you are, where you work and your theme. And if a tech cost is going into a bid and you want a straight, defensible number for it, that is exactly what the free first conversation is for.