ActionFunder has become an official Knowledge Partner to Social Value Portal, focused on NT16 – the TOM System measure for corporate donations to Voluntary, Community, Faith, and Social Enterprises (VCFSEs). The partnership pairs ActionFunder's platform for getting funding to these organisations with SVP's system for measuring it, making NT16 easier to deliver well, from commitment through to evidenced impact.
TOM System users are already putting real money into the VCFSE sector. Our State of the Nation 2025 report found nearly £100m spent with VCFSE organisations since 2020.
Meanwhile, NT16 specifically (which captures cash, equipment and use of space, reported as total £ invested) accounts for £52.3m of validated donations to date, with a further £4.5m committed.
But committed money doesn’t become delivered money on its own. Between the two is the actual work of getting funding to the right place, and most delivery and sustainability teams don’t have expertise in this, particularly if this is the first time they're reporting against NT16.
Funders rarely lack intent. What they lack is a practical route from a commitment on paper to money in the hands of the right community organisations, with evidence of what changed. SVP created the framework the sector measures itself against. ActionFunder was built to deliver it. This partnership connects the two, so NT16 stops being a line in a bid and becomes funded work in real communities.
Mark Shearer, CEO and Co-Founder, ActionFunder
ActionFunder's platform connects funders with a network of more than 17,000 registered non-profits and has already made over £10m available to community projects across the UK.
Buyers and suppliers match with verified local organisations, fund them directly with automatic due diligence and FCA-regulated payments built in, and pull the resulting evidence straight through into their NT16 reporting. It turns an admin-heavy process into a repeatable one.
Under the partnership, ActionFunder will author and maintain a practical guide to delivering NT16, published and hosted by Social Value Portal and kept current as policy and the TOM System evolve.
The guide will cover why VCFSE funding matters, how to get started, best-practice delivery, and how to capture the evidence that carries through into TOM System reporting. It will be published 13 October 2026, alongside a co-hosted webinar, and the two organisations will appear together at the Social Value Conference in Liverpool, 2–3 December.
VCFSE organisations do incredible work and in many ways are the backbone of our communities. They also need the support of businesses now more than ever. NT16 is how the TOM System captures and values that support, and this partnership gives TOM System users access to ActionFunder's expertise in making that support happen well, from vetting who the money goes to and moving it safely, to evidencing what it achieved. I'm delighted to welcome ActionFunder onboard as a Knowledge Partner, and look forward to what this means for VCSEs up and down the country.
Guy Battle, CEO and founder of Social Value Portal
Join the waiting list for the guide below: