There are four different types of support that we can look for to solve your business needs.

Direct Funding - Cash, Grants, Bursaries, Loans

These are access to direct funding opportunities where cash, grants, bursaries, loans, equity investment are sought after. Each type of direct funding has its advantages and disadvantages and depending on the status of your company some may not be available.

Different Organisations manage different types of Direct Funding. For example a Local Authority or Charity might administer grant giving, whereas a high street bank will administer loans, and venture capital/business angels will provide equity investment in return for part of your company.

Indirect Funding - Advice, Guidance, Support, Consultancy, informal Training

These are opportunities where a Funder (usually government departments like DTI and DFES) has provided a third party Provider (usually a Local Provider) with the necessary funds to subsequently provide advice, guidance, support, counselling, consultancy, mentoring or informal learning opportunities to further develop the skills and knowledge of the beneficiary. This is where most of the Funding is channelled.

Providers have to compete for the funds in open tendering processes - usually called rounds, and have to meet certain criteria in the application process to show that they can meet the overarching requirements of the type of fund (Equal, Objective Two, Objective Three, ESF, ERDF etc.).

Beneficiaries access the support through engaging with Providers who will access their eligibility against pre-determined criteria. Creative Launchpad is an indirect funding opportunity for creative industry clients and we have eligibility criteria to meet depend on the Projects that we are running.

Training/Education - Formal Training linked to Qualifications

These are opportunities where Education Establishments have been funded to provide formal training opportunities where the outcome is a qualification (NVQ, OCN, City and Guilds, Certificate, Diploma etc.). This type of support is dominated by Colleges, Higher Education, Further Education, and Adult Education and often referred to as Mainstream Funded Education.

However, this type of support also includes additional projects run by Providers that have been able to show that Mainstream Funding is not meeting the needs of the clients or employers. This type of support is dominated by Providers that have credibility, governance, transparency and capacity to deliver Public Funded projects. It is up to the Provider to then engage with Beneficiaries and deliver the project in accordance with the funding criteria.

Industry Specific Organisations - All support specific to a particular Industry

This type of support is incredible important to those in the Creative Industries. It covers the support that you are looking for from your industry - in terms of mentoring, networking, trends, market information, best practice, industry standards etc.

Usually provided by Associations or Unions on a local, regional or national level, they can be funded to provide support, or you have to become a member to gain access to the support.

A good example of this is what Musicians Union is to all the musicians in the country.

We are striving to ensure that each sector is represented by either local or regional industry specific organisations.

There are some important things to note here:

• Partner Organisations that we have found generally deliver two or more types. For example: a Provider of a loan will rarely do it without providing some sort of advice and guidance.
• You can search all the Providers that we know about by going to the Partner page and searching either by service, by sector or by region