After checking that you are set up in a way that will help you achieve your objectives, depending on your specific circumstances, two actions may be required after an initial Discovery Meeting, these are:

• Developing a fundraising strategy for your organisation:
  This key action will identify fundraising techniques that will best suited to your organisation and its objectives, then define how these can be implemented effectively within the available resources.
  
  
• Preparing a funding report:
  This involves our researching the full range of grants and social investment opportunities available that may meet your needs and providing a comprehensive report on these. A critical part of this is to identify opportunities which will support your organisation’s core work also those where with a little lateral thinking your work can meet funders wider objectives.
  Our funding report rates each opportunity in terms of both value and estimated difficulty, as well as providing tactical advice to help guide any potential bid. As part of the report we will consider:
  • Crowdfunding
  • Grant programmes, including those from:
  • Outside the UK, the National Lottery, the UK Government, large corporations, Trusts and Foundations and other grant funders
  • Income generation and fundraising
  • Sponsorship and Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Social investment (loans)

In each funding report we provide the maximum possible information about each grant opportunity identified, including:

• An explanation of the funder’s objectives,
• Any deadlines that apply,
• The complexity of bidding,
• Level of competition for funds,
• Requirements for match funding,
• The anticipated conditions and level of funding available,
• The level of funding available and maximum/minimum grant values,
• Which of your needs each fund might address.

This information allows you to decide what funding options to peruse and determine how complex this might be.

Every organisation has different funding needs and requirements. To find the best solutions for you we can help:

• Identify the outcomes of your plans and set these out in a way that funders can readily understand.


• Review how your organisation is structured and if this is helping you reach your goals


• Advise you how to progress complex projects in an effective way including how to identify and ensure that you have key stakeholders' support


• Audit how you currently operate, identify any opportunities or gaps, and review and update your policies and procedures as needed


• Prepare business, marketing, development, and delivery plans


• Develop a clear strategic case for your project based on consultation, local and national strategy, evidence of need and demographic information


• Demonstrating that your idea is supported both by your intended audience and the wider community.


• Ensure that you have a clear business plan that shows funders how your idea will impact your current activity and become sustainable.


• Help you obtain competitive quotes to present to funders.


• Draft a realistic project plan to ensure that everything gets done as quickly and efficiently as possible.


• Develop procurement briefs for any work that is required from third parties and secure quotations/tenders


• Help you engage technical specialists like architects and quantity surveyors


• Help you identify where vital match funding will come from.

Exactly what we do will be determined by your specific goals, how much help you need and the fundraising strategy you want to pursue.

Should you need help to ensure your project is investment ready, to run fundraising campaigns or prepare high quality funding bids, we can provide as much or as little support as required. Our goal is to help you ensure that you submit the strongest bids possible to your selected funders and achieve your wider fundraising goals. Depending on your capacity and skills our involvement might include things like:

• Designing and delivering community, digital and event-based fundraising campaigns


• Developing and implementing membership models


• Reviewing and updating your policies and procedures


• Ensuring that you get the credit you deserve for your work in the media


• Helping you build a strong business case and secure social investment


• Helping you form new partnerships to run legacy and in memorial fundraising campaigns


• Helping you make alterations to your organisation’s legal structure needed to make securing investment easier and to protect your trustees/directors, employees, and members


• Planning and managing Crowdfunding campaigns


• Preparing or editing bids for grant funding to ensure they are as strong as possible


• Providing training to support enable your team with fundraising activity


• Supporting you to identify and deliver new traded services