# My Funding Central alternative: for charities over £1m, outside England, or wanting monthly terms

My Funding Central is cheap and good for small English charities, but it stops at £1m income and at the English border. What to use if you fall outside its rules. Checked 26 October 2026.

- Author: OpenGrant
- Topic: [Grant databases compared](https://opengrant.co.uk/blog/category/grant-databases-compared)
- Published: 2026-10-26
- Updated: 2026-10-26
- Source sites checked: 2026-10-26
- Canonical URL: https://opengrant.co.uk/blog/my-funding-central-alternative

## Key facts

- My Funding Central costs £100 plus VAT a year for turnover up to £30,000, rising in five bands to £750 plus VAT for turnover between £500,000 and £1 million (26 October 2026).
- It is only available to small local communities, small town and parish councils, voluntary and charitable organisations and small business enterprises in England; fees are non-refundable.
- Organisations with income over £1 million are directed to GrantFinder, where the single-user VCSE plan costs £1,020 a year.
- Free national finders exist for Scotland (Funding Scotland, SCVO), Wales (Funding Wales, WCVA) and Northern Ireland (GrantTracker, NICVA).
- OpenGrant has no income cap or nation restriction, is billed monthly at £29 per email, and lists every grant free with an account.

My Funding Central is the cheapest editorial grant database in the UK, from £100 plus VAT a year, and for a small charity in England it does the job well. You need an alternative in three cases: your income is over £1 million, your organisation is outside England, or you cannot commit to a non-refundable annual fee. This guide sets out what the service covers, where it stops, and what fits each gap, with prices read on 26 October 2026.

## What My Funding Central is

My Funding Central is published by Idox, the company behind GrantFinder, and draws on the same editorial database of funds and funding news. Its homepage describes it as "an affordable funding search tool for Charities and VCSE organisations in England", and its subscription fees are banded by annual turnover:

- Up to £30,000: £100 plus VAT, one user account.
- Over £30,000 up to £50,000: £200 plus VAT, two users.
- Over £50,000 up to £100,000: £300 plus VAT, three users.
- Over £100,000 up to £500,000: £500 plus VAT, four users.
- Over £500,000 up to £1 million: £750 plus VAT, five users.
- Over £1 million: "Take a look at our GrantFinder solution".

For registered charities, turnover means total income as recorded with the Charity Commission; for others it is the most recently recorded annual turnover. Subscribers get the funds database, saved searches and alerts, and funding news items such as the October 2026 entries on its homepage. The page states that "any subscription fees paid will be non-refundable". For an English charity under £1 million that wants a familiar editorial database, the price is hard to argue with.

## Where it stops: the £1 million cap

The income bands end at £1 million. Above that, Idox directs you to GrantFinder, whose subscriptions page on 26 October 2026 listed VCSE Essentials at £1,020 a year for one user and Growth at £1,500 a year for up to three users. That is a jump from £750 plus VAT for five users to £1,020 for one. The [GrantFinder alternatives guide](https://opengrant.co.uk/blog/grantfinder-alternatives-uk) compares the options at that level.

OpenGrant has no income cap. A charity of any size pays the same £29 a month per email for research tools, and the free tier shows every open scheme with full criteria regardless of who is looking. The [charities browse page](https://opengrant.co.uk/grants/for/charities) listed 396 open, rolling and forthcoming schemes from 137 funders on 26 October 2026, 86 of them with a stated maximum of £100,000 or more, which is the band larger charities care about.

## Where it stops: the English border

My Funding Central subscriptions are for organisations in England. Charities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have three free national finders, each run by the national infrastructure body:

- **[Funding Scotland](https://funding.scot/)**, run by SCVO: "free online search engine" for charities, community groups and social enterprises, listing funders with a track record of supporting projects in Scotland. Registration for a My SCVO account is required, and SCVO members and supporters get extra features.
- **[Funding Wales](https://funding.cymru/)**, run by WCVA for Third Sector Support Wales: free search of "hundreds of grant and loan finance opportunities", with registration required and a nudge to contact your County Voluntary Council for application support.
- **[GrantTracker](https://www.grant-tracker.org/)**, developed by NICVA: a funding toolkit for Northern Ireland with deadline reminder emails at nine, three and one weeks.

OpenGrant covers all four nations and shows UK-wide schemes alongside national ones, so a Welsh charity sees both the Wales-only programmes and the UK trusts that fund there. On 26 October 2026 the [Wales page](https://opengrant.co.uk/grants/in/wales) listed 344 open, rolling and forthcoming schemes, 57 of them specific to Wales; the [Scotland page](https://opengrant.co.uk/grants/in/scotland) 374, with 87 specific to Scotland; and the [Northern Ireland page](https://opengrant.co.uk/grants/in/northern-ireland) its own set. The guides to [community grants in Wales](https://opengrant.co.uk/blog/community-grants-in-wales) and [arts and heritage grants in Scotland](https://opengrant.co.uk/blog/arts-and-heritage-grants-in-scotland) walk through the national funders.

## Where it stops: annual, non-refundable terms

A £100 annual fee is small, but the structure matters to organisations that research in bursts. A sole fundraiser who does a trusts sweep twice a year, or a consultant who takes on a client for one round, may not want a year's commitment. OpenGrant is monthly: every grant and a weekly alert are free with an account, the research tools cost £29 a month per email, there are three days of full access before the first charge, and cancellation is from the account page. The trade-off is that OpenGrant's lottery and foundation records are facts-only, without the hand-written summaries that an editorial database provides.

## What My Funding Central does better

An honest comparison has to say where the Idox product wins for its target user:

- **Editorial summaries**: a researched description of each fund, rather than status, amounts, deadlines and a source link.
- **Funding news**: dated items on new and reopened funds, written for subscribers.
- **Price for the smallest groups**: £100 plus VAT a year is less than five months of OpenGrant's research tier, if you only need the search and never the funder evidence or exports.
- **Familiarity**: many CVS advisers and local authority funding officers know the Idox format.

OpenGrant's advantages are the ones its [comparison page](https://opengrant.co.uk/compare) lists: provenance for every record, ingest of open calls from publishers' own feeds, 360Giving evidence and a [peers lookup](https://opengrant.co.uk/peers) for funder research, exports and a public API. The [free UK grant finders guide](https://opengrant.co.uk/blog/free-grant-finders-uk) covers what you can get without paying anything at all.

## A short decision rule

If you are in England with income under £1 million and want an editorial database, My Funding Central is the cheapest option and there is no reason to look further for the search alone. If you are over £1 million, outside England, serving several clients, or you want to pay monthly and stop, use the national free finder for your nation and OpenGrant, and keep a trusts directory for the small trusts that publish nothing online. Prices are quoted from each provider's own site on 26 October 2026 and may change; My Funding Central and GrantFinder are trademarks of Idox, and OpenGrant is independent of them.

## Frequently asked questions

### Who can subscribe to My Funding Central?

Small local communities, small town and parish councils, voluntary and charitable organisations and small business enterprises in England, according to its pricing page on 26 October 2026. Registered charities subscribe with their Charity Commission number, companies with their Companies House number, and other organisations by declaring annual income. Organisations with turnover over £1 million are pointed to GrantFinder.

### How much does My Funding Central cost?

It depends on annual turnover, measured as total income on the Charity Commission register for charities. On 26 October 2026 the bands were £100 plus VAT for up to £30,000 with one user, £200 for up to £50,000 with two users, £300 for up to £100,000 with three users, £500 for up to £500,000 with four users and £750 for up to £1 million with five users. Subscriptions are annual and non-refundable.

### Does My Funding Central cover Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland?

No. The service describes itself as a funding search tool for charities and VCSE organisations in England and restricts subscriptions to organisations in England. Charities elsewhere in the UK can use Funding Scotland, Funding Wales or GrantTracker for free, or OpenGrant, which covers all four nations and lists UK-wide schemes alongside national ones.

### What should a charity with income over £1 million use instead?

GrantFinder is Idox's own answer, at £1,020 a year for one user on the VCSE plan or £1,500 for up to three users. OpenGrant has no income cap and costs £29 a month per email with no annual commitment. The right choice depends on whether you need editorial programme summaries and team administration, which favour GrantFinder, or open-call coverage, funder evidence and monthly terms, which favour OpenGrant.

### Can I pay for a grant database monthly?

My Funding Central and GrantFinder are annual subscriptions. OpenGrant is billed monthly at £29 per email, with every grant and a weekly alert free with an account, three days of full access before the first charge, and cancellation from the account page at any time. Monthly terms suit organisations that research in bursts around funding rounds.

## Find grants

- [Grants for charities and community groups](https://opengrant.co.uk/grants/for/charities) (Markdown: https://opengrant.co.uk/grants/for/charities.md)
- [Grants in Scotland](https://opengrant.co.uk/grants/in/scotland) (Markdown: https://opengrant.co.uk/grants/in/scotland.md)
- [Grants in Wales](https://opengrant.co.uk/grants/in/wales) (Markdown: https://opengrant.co.uk/grants/in/wales.md)
- [Grants in Northern Ireland](https://opengrant.co.uk/grants/in/northern-ireland) (Markdown: https://opengrant.co.uk/grants/in/northern-ireland.md)
- [Compare OpenGrant with My Funding Central](https://opengrant.co.uk/compare)

## Related guides

- [GrantFinder alternatives in 2026: paid, free and open-data options compared](https://opengrant.co.uk/blog/grantfinder-alternatives-uk): GrantFinder costs £1,020 a year for one user. The alternatives range from free government and open-data tools to £29 a month, each with a different trade-off. Prices checked 26 October 2026.
- [Free UK grant finders for charities: what each one covers and what it leaves out](https://opengrant.co.uk/blog/free-grant-finders-uk): Eight free UK grant finders compared, plus Northern Ireland’s paid GrantTracker service: coverage, deadlines and registration. Checked 26 October 2026.
- [Community grants in Wales: who funds what and what is open now](https://opengrant.co.uk/blog/community-grants-in-wales): Wales has its own lottery programmes, a national community foundation, WCVA funds and a free national finder. Who funds community groups in Wales, what is open and where to look.
- [Arts and heritage grants in Scotland: what is open now and who funds it](https://opengrant.co.uk/blog/arts-and-heritage-grants-in-scotland): Creative Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, the Heritage Fund and Scottish trusts fund arts and heritage in Scotland. What was open on 26 October 2026, the amounts and the routes in.

## Sources and further reading

- [My Funding Central: Subscription fees](https://www.myfundingcentral.co.uk/Default/ShowPage/Pricing)
- [My Funding Central: Welcome](https://www.myfundingcentral.co.uk/)
- [GrantFinder: Subscriptions](https://grantfinder.co.uk/subscriptions/)
- [Funding Scotland (SCVO)](https://funding.scot/)
- [Funding Wales (WCVA)](https://funding.cymru/)
- [GrantTracker (NICVA)](https://www.grant-tracker.org/)

All guides: https://opengrant.co.uk/blog.md · Glossary: https://opengrant.co.uk/glossary.md · Agent index: https://opengrant.co.uk/llms-guides.txt