GrantIQ vs Charity Excellence
GrantIQ vs Charity Excellence: eligibility matching vs a free funding directory
Charity Excellence is the most popular free funding resource for small UK charities — and free is a real advantage. GrantIQ adds eligibility matching and drafting on top of search. Here's when each makes sense.
Charity Excellence is the most widely used free funding resource for small UK charities and CICs, with a large library of funding lists, templates, and sector guidance. GrantIQ is an eligibility-first matching and drafting platform. If you run a small charity, you may reasonably use both — but here's how they differ and when each earns its place.
We'll say the important thing up front: Charity Excellence is free, and for a small charity that matters a lot. This comparison isn't "we're better" — it's "here's what each does, so you can decide."
At a glance
| | GrantIQ | Charity Excellence | | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | Eligibility-first matching + drafting software | Free funding directory + charity resource hub | | Cost | Free tier; Starter £39/mo; Professional £149/mo | Free (registration-based) | | How you find funding | Grants scored against your profile with a verdict | You browse curated funding lists and links | | Eligibility | Plain-language go/no-go read on each match | You check each funder's criteria yourself | | Application help | AI-drafted sections grounded in your evidence | Templates, guidance, and AI writing aids | | Coverage | 100+ UK and EU sources incl. devolved nations, refreshed daily | UK charity funding lists and resources | | Best for | Saving time by focusing on grants you can win | Charities wanting a free starting point and resources |
Details reflect each product's public information at the time of writing.
Where Charity Excellence is the stronger choice
Credit where it's due. If you're a small charity with little or no budget, Charity Excellence is an excellent free starting point: a big library of funding lists, practical templates, and community resources, all at no cost. For many small organisations, that's genuinely enough, and it's hard to argue with free.
Where GrantIQ is the stronger choice
The gap Charity Excellence leaves is between a list of funders and knowing which ones you can win. A curated directory still leaves you to open each funder, read the criteria, and judge your own fit. GrantIQ closes that gap:
- Matching, not a directory. GrantIQ screens each grant against your organisation's profile and gives a go/no-go verdict with the reasons cited — so you're not manually checking dozens of funders.
- Live, structured catalogue. GrantIQ refreshes 100+ UK and EU sources daily and deactivates funding that has closed, so you're less likely to chase a grant that's already gone.
- Drafting grounded in your evidence. GrantIQ can draft application sections from your own track record and history, not generic prose.
- Beyond charities. If your work spans SME, community-group, or academic funding as well as charity grants, GrantIQ covers those in one place.
Which should you pick?
- Choose Charity Excellence if you want a free, well-stocked funding directory and charity-sector resources, and you're happy to do the eligibility-checking yourself.
- Choose GrantIQ if you'd rather be shown which grants fit — with eligibility verdicts and drafting help — and you value the time saved. You can start on GrantIQ's free tier and upgrade only if it earns it.
Many small charities start with a free directory and add a matching tool once the manual searching becomes the bottleneck.