Manchester AI Startup Raiser Wins Charity Funder Matching Grant 2026

Key Points

• Manchester-based charitable technology start-up Raiser has received innovation funding from the Greater Manchester Business Growth Hub.
• This will help develop an artificial intelligence-powered grant matching engine which will assist in bringing together charities and relevant funders.
• The system by Raiser will utilize structured impact data via the Open Impact Standard rather than conducting searches through keywords.
• The company claims that the Charity Agent tool by them is already available for beta use by more than 130 charities.
• Former JustGiving advisor Daryl Upsall has become an investor and ambassador of Raiser.
• Zahra Hedges, former CEO of Winning Scotland, is an advisor at Raiser, whereas Mark Carrigan, who joined the board of directors as a non-executive director earlier this year, is working as an advisor too.
• The charity-facing platform will continue to be free of cost, and money will be generated from funders making use of technology of Raiser.
• The funding will help with intellectual property work on the new iteration of the company’s service.

Manchester (Manchester Mirror) October 20, 2026 – Manchester charity technology start-up Raiser has secured innovation funding from the Greater Manchester Business Growth Hub to develop an AI-enabled engine that matches charities with potential funders.

As reported by Karen Joy Bacudo of IT Brief UK, the funding will support technology intended to match charities and funders using structured impact data rather than keyword-based searches. The company is also bringing in backing from Daryl Upsall and other figures from the charity and philanthropy sectors.

Raiser is developing a platform to address what it identifies as inefficiencies in the charitable funding market. Its technology is designed to connect organisations seeking grants with those providing them, while helping smaller charities become more visible to funders.

How Does Raiser’s AI Grant Matching Work?

Raiser’s approach centres on shared data infrastructure that records charitable activities, outputs and outcomes in a common format. According to IT Brief UK, this framework is called the Open Impact Standard and is intended to give charities and funders a shared language for describing work and results.

The company says the standard will underpin a meaning-based matching engine. Rather than simply matching words in applications and funding criteria, the system is intended to identify organisations whose activities and outcomes align with a funder’s priorities.

Raiser is positioning the platform as an alternative to AI tools focused mainly on drafting more grant applications or helping funders process larger volumes of submissions. Instead, it is building software for both sides of the funding process, including tools for charities to capture evidence of impact and for funders to discover, assess and manage relationships with organisations.

Can Smaller Charities Benefit From Raiser’s Platform?

Raiser says smaller charities can struggle to appear in searches or present their work in terms that fit funders’ criteria. Its platform is intended to address that issue by creating a common, searchable record of impact across participating organisations.

The company’s existing Charity Agent product is already live in beta. According to Raiser, more than 130 charities are using the platform to manage funding opportunities, assemble evidence and support applications.

Luke Wilkinson, co-founder of Raiser, said smaller charities lose out when they do not use the “right” jargon, while funders are left dealing with large numbers of applications and uncertainty about which organisations to back. As reported by IT Brief UK, he said:

“Right now, small charities lose out for not using the ‘right’ jargon and funders are buried in applications, unclear which charities to back. Meanwhile the quiet grassroots groups doing vital work go unseen. Keyword searches and black-box algorithms don’t fix that.”

Wilkinson described Raiser’s system as a “meaning-based alternative”, adding:

“Think of it as a key, a map and a sat nav for grant-making: a shared language for impact, a picture of who funded what and what changed, and a way to find the right partner fast. Every recommendation is explainable, and humans still make the decisions.”

The company says recommendations produced by the system are intended to be explainable, while funding decisions will remain with people rather than automated tools.

Who Is Backing Raiser’s Growth?

The innovation funding has coincided with an expansion of Raiser’s advisers and backers. Daryl Upsall, a fundraising consultant who advised the founders of JustGiving during its early development and launch, has joined the company as an investor and ambassador.

As reported by Insider Media, Upsall brings more than 40 years of international fundraising experience and helped pioneer face-to-face fundraising with Greenpeace International.

Zahra Hedges, former chief executive of Winning Scotland and IoD Director of the Year (Third Sector) 2025, has recently joined Raiser as an adviser. Mark Carrigan, a specialist in philanthropy and capital mobilisation, joined the company’s board earlier this year as a non-executive director.

Insider Media reported that Hedges more than doubled the annual income of Winning Scotland during her time as chief executive. It also reported that Carrigan, managing director of Carrigan Consulting, has advised more than 100 organisations across five continents in raising more than $590m.

What Will the Greater Manchester Funding Support?

The Greater Manchester Business Growth Hub funding will support development of Raiser’s grant-matching technology and its wider growth ambitions.

According to IT Brief UK, the funding will also support work on intellectual property as Raiser develops the next stage of its service.

Raiser is building its software on Ruby on Rails, an open-source web framework. The company plans to make its impact-data framework interoperable with other charity and grant-management systems.

It is already working with charity software provider Lamplight on a two-way integration intended to allow impact data to move between platforms.

How Will Raiser Make Money?

Raiser’s commercial model keeps the charity-facing platform free to use. Revenue is expected to come from funders using its technology and services.

The company says this structure is intended to reduce barriers for charities while generating income from institutions with grant budgets.

Raiser was founded by Luke Wilkinson, a former charity chief executive, and Beckie Denny. The business describes itself as a financial technology company focused on shared data and intelligence infrastructure for the grants market.

Beckie Denny said the wider problem in the sector is fragmented information spread across incompatible systems. As reported by IT Brief UK, she said:

“Charities and funders are currently operating with fragmented information, different systems and no shared way to understand and communicate impact.”

Denny added:

“We’re building infrastructure that connects both sides and makes that information more useful to everyone involved. Securing this innovation funding, alongside the expertise and support of our new advisers and backers, is an important step in bringing that vision to life and taking Raiser into its next phase of growth.”

In comments reported by Insider Media, Denny said Raiser was built around a problem the founders knew firsthand from working in the charity sector, while also representing an opportunity to change how the wider funding market operates.

Background of the Development

Raiser is a Manchester-based charity technology and financial technology start-up founded by former charity leaders Luke Wilkinson and Beckie Denny. The company is developing shared data and intelligence infrastructure intended to improve how charities and funders identify, assess and manage grant funding.

The Greater Manchester Business Growth Hub provides business support across the region, including help for companies working in areas such as AI and advanced computing, as well as support to access research and development grant funding.

Raiser’s Open Impact Standard is intended to create a shared format for recording charitable activities, outputs and outcomes. The company says this could allow organisations working in similar fields or areas to be found, compared and assessed using the same underlying standard.

Prediction: What Could This Mean for UK Charities and Funders?

For small and grassroots charities, Raiser’s development could make it easier to present impact evidence in a format that funders can understand and compare. If the platform achieves wider adoption, organisations that currently lack communications resources or grant-writing capacity may have a clearer route to being discovered by potential backers.

For funders, the system could reduce the time spent searching through applications and help identify charities whose work aligns with specific funding priorities. The company’s emphasis on explainable recommendations and human decision-making suggests it is seeking to position AI as a support tool rather than a replacement for grant-making judgement.

For Greater Manchester’s technology and charity sectors, the grant and new backers may support Raiser’s next phase of growth. However, the platform’s effect will depend on adoption by charities and funders, the quality of the impact data shared through the Open Impact Standard, and the success of its planned integrations with existing charity and grant-management systems.