Charities have been warned that their trust fundraising strategies could be a waste of time and money as research finds that more than a third of applications for funding to grantmakers are ineligible.

Research released today by the Directory of Social Change (DSC) found that 361,000 out of just under one million grant applications made last year failed at the first hurdle of eligibility.

The DSC estimates that if each application in the sample – taken from the results of 2,500 grantmakers – was posted first class, the cost of the ineligible applications in terms of stamps alone was £141,000 in 2009.

Ben Wittenberg, director of policy and research at the DSC, said that the high proportion of ineligible applications was both the result of opaque trusts and fundraisers who do not read guidelines.

“We think this is important because the fewer ineligible applications could mean quicker responses to the eligible ones, better engagement with applicants, and possibly more resources to allocate as grants,” said Wittenberg.

For more about the current and state of grantmaking in the UK, look out for the May issue of Fundraising magazine.