Charity Excellence Framework Review 2025: Funding Finder and Compliance Tools

Charity Excellence Framework (CEF) promises an all-in-one health check, Funding Finder, and compliance toolkit—free for charities of every size. We tested the platform in December 2024 to see how it fits alongside Crafty.

Verdict

Funding Finder surfaces small and medium grants quickly, especially for local causes.
Health check dashboards help trustees identify compliance gaps.
Exporting data for Crafty workflows takes manual effort, but templates make it manageable.

Feature snapshot

Figure 1. Charity Excellence Framework feature scores (5 = excellent). Alt text: table comparing Funding Finder, Health Check, Compliance tools, Integrations.

Feature	Score	Notes
Funding Finder	4.5	Quick filters, strong small-grant coverage, auto-email alerts.
Organisation Health Check	4	Helps trustees prioritise governance fixes; integrates with knowledge hub.
Compliance hub	4	GDPR, safeguarding, finance templates; good for small teams.
Integrations	3	No API; exports as CSV/PDF for manual Crafty uploads.

Where CEF excels

The Funding Finder aggregates 70,000+ grants and uses keywords plus location filters to surface relevant bids. Daily updates and simple exports make it a strong companion to our Charity Commission data mining workflow.

The organisational health check assigns RAG scores across governance, finance, fundraising, and impact—perfect for feeding into the grant readiness checklist.

Where it falls short

There’s no direct integration with Crafty or CRMs. You’ll need to export CSVs and upload manually. Complex organisations may want additional filters or API access—which CEF doesn’t offer. For larger datasets, combine CEF with GrantNav.

Best fit

Small to mid-sized UK charities building readiness and compliance capacity.
Trustees seeking quick diagnostics to feed into board packs.
Fundraisers hunting £1k–£50k grants or emergency funding.

Crafty workflow tips

Export Funding Finder results quarterly and import into Crafty for personalised outreach. Use the health check outputs to update the audit readiness plan and responsible AI checklist.

Bottom line

Charity Excellence Framework remains a stellar free resource. It won’t replace open-data platforms, but as a readiness and small-grant powerhouse it’s hard to beat. Combine it with Crafty for full-stack fundraising.