This may be either directly through grants of some kind, or through organised, general fundraising appeals, subscriptions, sponsorships and/or revenue from activities. Applying for external funds for the delivery of specific projects is still, however, new to many locally based organisations and community groups.

To take advantage of these funding opportunities, the activities of a group or organisation need to be divided into 'parcels' that might each be eligible for funding in their own right (known as projects). It is extremely unlikely that you will get grants from external sources to cover the cost of what you already do. It may require a total re-think of the way your organisation delivers its activities.

It also opens up new possibilities of tapping in to a number of individual pots of money that may be used to finance important areas of work, which are impossible to fund from your normal operating budget. Or it may be possible to fund one large project with a combination of grants from a variety of grant-giving organisations.

With the rise in the use of external project-related funding, has come the inevitable surge in administration, to develop and submit your application; to keep administrative and financial records; and to monitor and report on the success of your project. Whilst these may at first seem like obstacles deliberately put in your path, these very processes do in fact help you in the long-term by saving both time and money when you get to the project delivery stage.

The main sources of grant aid for projects are local councils, the National Lottery and charitable trusts.

Each grant-giving organisation will have its own rules about which organisations are eligible to receive a grant and about the types of project they are interested in helping (these rules are known as criteria). It may be that your organisation is eligible to apply to a particular grant-giver, but your project may not be - or that some of your projects are and some are not.

Some larger organisations offer grants for a variety of activities, through a number of different grant aid schemes. You may find that you are only eligible to apply to one, or some, of these schemes, depending on the content of your project.

There are literally thousands of organisations that offer grants to community and voluntary groups. Where you apply will depend principally on the following:

• Whether you are a charity, community group, other voluntary organisation, statutory or public organisation;
• The rules and priorities of the organisation which is offering the funding - for example, it may itself be a charity (grant-giving trust), a voluntary organisation, a National Lottery distributor, or a central Government department or agency, and will specify who can apply and what they will give money for; and
• The rules of a particular grant aid scheme, which will dictate who can apply and for what.

All of the above will also have a direct bearing on the way you need to put your application together and the people you need to involve in the actual development and delivery of the project.

In some cases you will be asked to submit a written application, in others there will be an application form only; major funding providers will often require you to complete an extensive application form and submit a business plan with a considerable volume of supporting documentation, particularly if yours is a large scale project.

Grant-givers will usually provide details for applicants; setting out the criteria; the application process; the information they need from you; and how and when they make their decisions. Some will offer pre-application discussions or interviews - if they do, take them up on it if you possibly can - the advice is invaluable and can save you from a lot of unnecessary advice and expense.

The County Council's innovation fund

The County Council's innovation fund encourages voluntary groups to identify new local approaches to help transform the way adult social care services are delivered in North Yorkshire. The fund aims to develop a more flexible and personalised approach to traditional services, such as day care, by offering vulnerable people services that fit around their lives.

See the voluntary sector commissioning framework page for more information about the innovation fund and how to apply.