Charities User Guide to the Turn2us Grants Search Database

On this page

• The Turn2us Grants Search database
• Accessing your account
• Receiving online enquiries
• Replying to enquiries
• Further enquiries
• Making changes to your listing
• Receiving online applications
• Intermediary only charitable funds
• Using Turn2us services when working with your clients
• Registering your charitable fund on the Turn2us Grants Search database
• Charity of the Month
• Further information or help 

The Turn2us Grants database

The Turn2us Grants Search database contains details of around 3,500 charitable funds that give grants and other support to people who meet their eligibility criteria and the contact details of the charities which run them. These include all publicly-registered charities that give at least £500 a year to individuals who:

• Are in financial need and have welfare needs; and/or
• Require help with the costs associated with education and training courses.

As well as contact information for each charitable fund, the Grants Search database contains the following information on each fund:

• What it is called
• Who it helps
• Eligibility criteria
• Whether enquiries can be made by individuals or intermediaries
• Whether the charitable fund accepts online enquires through the Turn2us website.

Visitors to Turn2us are able to search for and enquire directly about any of the funds listed on our website that match their personal circumstances and eligibility criteria.

They can do this by using the:

• Assisted Search - which provides a step-by-step guide to searching for funds that match their background and experience
• Advanced Search - if they are familiar with searching for grants. This provides a series of drop-down boxes from which they can select the criteria that applies to them or the person they are seeking a grant for 
• A-Z listing of the grant-giving charities that have charitable funds listed on our Grants Search database and their contact details.

Where a charitable fund has indicated it will accept online enquiries through Turn2us, applicants (individuals or intermediaries) can submit an enquiry form through the Turn2us website. This outlines their background, circumstances and personal needs directly to their selected fund for consideration.

Through our Grants Search Database, Turn2us aims to make it easier for charitable funds to:

• Access people in financial need who might be eligible for their help and who may be hard to reach by other means
• Manage enquiries and applications in one place, reducing their administrative costs
• Receive enquiries and applications which better match their eligibility criteria, saving time and resources
• Find other funds that may be able to share the cost of expensive items for individuals they are helping
• Identify means-tested benefits which people in financial need may be entitled.

Every charitable fund listed in the database has its own ‘My Turn2us’ account through which it can:

• Access and reply to grant enquiries made by individuals and intermediaries
• Change or update information about the fund at any time
• Amend its status (e.g. whether it is currently accepting online enquiries).

Representatives from charitable funds have been involved in the development of Turn2us and in particular the Grants Search database – including scoping, identifying user requirements and testing.

Accessing your account

To access your account, you need your charitable fund's Turn2us user name and password.

1. Click on ‘Log in’ in the top right hand corner of any page of the website
2. This will take you to the ‘My Turn2us’ login page
3. Enter your user name and password
4. Click the ‘Login’ button
5. The first time you log in to the site you must change your password and accept the site Terms and Conditions before you can continue
6. Then you will be taken to the Turn2us Charities landing page (see below)

Receiving online enquiries

Charitable funds can opt to accept online enquiries using the Turn2us Grants Search Database. This means enquirer (individuals or intermediaries) can submit an enquiry form outlining the person’s background, circumstances and needs to their selected fund through the Turn2us website.

If you want to accept online enquiries, you just need to log into your 'My Turn2us' account. On the landing page (see above) you will see a box with Charity settings on the right hand side of the page. Make sure the option that says ‘Accepts online enquiries’ is ticked and save the settings.

When an individual makes an online enquiry to your charity using the Turn2us website, they fill in an enquiry form and submit it through the Turn2us website. An email is then sent automatically to your designated email address to tell you that there is an enquiry in your ‘My Turn2us’ Inbox.

To view the email:

1. Click on ‘Log in’ in the top right hand corner of any page of the website
2. Enter your user name and password on the registration page that appears 
3. Click the ‘Login’ button
4. If this is your first time logging in to the site you must change your password and accept the site Terms and Conditions before you can continue
5. On the screen that will appear after you login (see above) click ‘Inbox’ to see the new enquiries you have received
6. A 'Messages and Enquiries' page will appear (see below)

7.  Click on ‘new enquiry submitted’ in the Subject column

8.  This will bring you to a page that tells you have a message (see below).

9.   Click the link that says ‘view the enquiry here’.

10.   This will bring up the Turn2us form containing details of the enquiry (see below).

Replying to enquiries

1. When you have read through the enquiry and are ready to respond, click ‘Send reply’ at the bottom of the form. This opens up an email form for reply (see below).

2.  There are three types of response you can make:

• Rejected
• More information required
• Accepted

Click the relevant response you wish to make. Add any clarifying information about your response that you wish to make in the free text box below these options. Then press ‘Send’.

Further enquiries

1. Repeat the above process until all outstanding enquiries have been dealt with.
2. The ‘Enquiries received’ option on the home page of your ‘My Turn2us’ account provides you with a history of all the enquiries that your charity has received since your account was first opened. To see what enquiries you have had, just click ‘Enquiries received’.

Making changes to your listing

If you want to make changes to your Turn2us profile, simply log into your 'My Turn2us' account and click on the tabs that say ‘Update fund details’ and ‘Update charity listing’

Update fund details

1. Update fund details (see below) allows you to update the details on your profile. You need to click 'Edit' on the relevant fund you want to update.

2. Make the changes you need to make in the free text and drop down boxes on the page that appears (see below)

3. Click ‘update’ at the bottom of the page.

4.  Once you have made any changes and updated them on this particular page, click on ‘Save and exit’

Update charity listing

‘Update charity listing’ (see below) allows you to change your contact details

1. Make the changes you wish to make and click ‘Update’ at the bottom of the page.
2. Once you have made any changes and updated them on this particular page, click on ‘Save and exit’ at the bottom of the page.

Online applications

The website also hosts a formal application form for charitable funds to use if they wish to process applications through the website. You can personalise this form to meet your specific eligibility criteria by amending the settings in your ‘My Turn2us’ account. You can then invite the enquirer to fill in this form when you reply to their enquiry.

1. If you want to accept online applications, you just need to log into your ‘My Turn2us’ account. Once you log in, on the landing page (see below) you will see a box with Charity settings on the right hand side of the page. Make sure the option that says ‘Accepts online applications’ is ticked and save the settings.

Intermediary only charitable funds

If your charitable fund can only be accessed via an application from an intermediary, you can use your ‘My Turn2us’ account to indicate this. These funds will not appear on the public part of the Grants Search database. However, intermediaries who have registered for an intermediary account with Turn2us will be able to see this information when they do a grants search while logged into their My Turn2us account.

Intermediaries include:

• Citizens Advice /Advice UK advisers
• Health and social care professionals
• Housing associations
• Prisons/probation services
• Registered charities.

If you want your fund to only be accessible to intermediaries, you just need to log into your ‘My Turn2us’ account. Once you log in, on the landing page (see below) you will see a box with Charity settings on the right-hand side of the page. Make sure the option that says ‘Intermediary only’ is ticked and save the settings.

Using Turn2us services when working with your clients

Don’t forget that you can also use Turn2us services when working with your clients.

• Our Grants Search database can help you to find other charitable funds that may be able to share the cost of expensive items that individuals you are helping need
• Our Benefits Checker can help you check their entitlement to welfare benefits
• If you are looking for information to help your clients, our Information and Resources section has a wide range of information on welfare benefits, charitable grants, managing money, tax and life events that affect people’s finances
• Our ‘Find an Adviser’ feature can help you locate advisers relevant to your clients’s particular needs and location.

Registering your charitable fund on the Turn2us Grants Search database

If you would like your charitable fund to be added to our Grants Search Database, please complete our Grants Search database registration form (PDF file size 263kb) and post it to Turn2us, Unit 9, Cefn Coed Parc, Nantgarw, Cardiff CF15 7QQ.

We will then contact you to provide details of your user name and password so you can begin using your ‘My Turn2us’ account to promote your services and, if you wish, receive online enquiries through the Turn2us website.

Charity of the Month

Turn2us has a 'Charity of the Month' feature about charitable funds that are included on our Grants Search Database on the home page of this website.

Find out more about Charity of the Month

Further information or help

If you need any help with using Turn2us services, please contact our freephone helpline on 0808 802 2000 (8.00am-8.00pm Mondays-Fridays) or use our Contact Form

Date of publication: 4 May 2011