[WiLT] Free grants directory duplicates existing site

[WiL Admin]

Funding Central website lists 4,000 opportunities

But free grants directory duplicates Governmentfunding.org.uk site created by
the Directory of Social Change

The NCVO and the Office of the Third Sector have launched a free website
containing details of funding opportunities for voluntary organisations.

Funding Central provides information about 4,000 grants, contracts and loans
offered by local, regional, national and European funders.

Third sector minister Angela Smith said the site would save charities time and
money searching for funding opportunities.

"I hope it will also open up opportunities to more organisations, particularly
smaller ones, that might have been deterred from seeking government support in
the past because the information wasn't so readily available," she said.

Since 2003, the Government has awarded grants worth £2.2m to the Directory of
Social Change for its governmentfunding.org.uk website, which also lists charity
funding opportunities. The DSC site received its final grant in April.

Simon Hill, chair of the DSC, said in February that the OTS's decision to fund
another site was a "wasteful duplication of effort to be funded through the
public purse.

The NCVO has a three-year contract to run the new site.

Ben Kernighan, deputy chief executive of the NCVO, said the site would be an
"invaluable website for organisations looking for up-to-date funding
opportunities as well as offering advice and support".

>From Third Sector Online http://ecm.hbpl.co.uk/re?l=ew13bwI450l1k5Ir