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Autumn 2007 Newsletter

Welcome to the Autumn edition of our e-newsletter. Although next April still seems far away, now is the time that budget building and searching for funds for the next financial year gets underway in earnest.

Throughout September we saw an upsurge in enquiries from organisations right across the Third Sector and including some major, national charities. Responding to such diverse enquiries underlines the strength and flexibility of the Company – our experienced consultants bring skills and experience from a number of relevant backgrounds, whilst our responsive team of researchers and bid writers enables us to handle peaks in our volume of work.

Updates and information are always available on our website.

Successes for clients

Paul Parker’s work for Christian Blind Mission Ireland has resulted in substantial income for them. They have now commissioned Paul to assist with the monitoring and evaluation of the impact of the funded projects in Africa as well as a further round of funding applications.

New clients

As a result of the work for CBMI, we are also working with CBM UK. A number of new clients have commissioned us over the past few months, covering community benefits as diverse as young peoples’ health; gun and knife crime and drug abuse. Welcome to 4YP, Save a Young Life Every Day, Westminster Drugs Project and the James Baldwin Trust.

We are always pleased to see former clients returning to us, welcome back Newpin.

Training Days

Our one-day “Finding Funding” training courses continue to prove popular, A well-attended and lively presentation in Woodbridge (26th September) will be followed by sessions in London (10th October) and Ipswich (14th November). The course in Ipswich has already proved so popular we are running a further session there, on Wednesday 31st January.

The course is aimed at those with some involvement in managing a charity or not-for-profit enterprise, but who may be new to fundraising. Topics covered include how to plan your fundraising, understanding what funders look for in an application and how to identify potential funders. There are a few places remaining at each presentation, please see our 'Finding Funding' page for more details or call Peter on 01394 610581.

Team news

After a highly successful year with us, Tricia Nightingale has decided that her long-term career lies in teaching; she will be specialising in Citizenship. She has now begun a PGCE, though we hope to see her back during University and school vacations. Tricia has made an outstanding contribution to our work for clients and has been a popular member of the Head Office team. We wish her every success, even though we shall miss the Rugby Union updates and the continuous supply of tea. It is surely no coincidence that she will be studying at Leicester, home of the Leicester Tigers, her favourite team.

One of our long-term colleagues, Rose Longhurst, has secured a full time post as a fundraiser with a national charity. They will undoubtedly benefit as much from Rose’s cheerful enthusiasm as they will from her proven extensive skills and experience

Sarah Owen joins us on a part-time basis, bringing her experience of event management to our portfolio of skills. Asked for her views on joining us, Sarah said, “I am really pleased and excited to be working for Charity Fundraising. I am looking forward to gaining experience in all aspects of the fundraising process and working with such a variety of clients. I believe that my events management expertise will add a valuable dimension to the broad skills base here at Charity Fundraising.”

Our long time Associate, Craig Bird, is setting aside his reservations about the local weather and forsaking the East Riding for East Anglia. Craig will be working from our head office on a regular basis.

Fundraising issues

One major issue we encounter quite frequently is that of funders’ concerns over the level of reserves held by applicant charities. Funders wish to see any money they invest being used as soon as possible to deliver benefits to the community. Whilst an appropriate level of reserves makes good business sense, we often find that the reserves as represented in a charity’s Report & Accounts are high enough to deter funders. This can be the result of the style of presentation under SORP 2005; it can be that funds set aside for specific purposes are still shown as “Unrestricted Funds”. Please ask for details of our “Fundraising Surgeries” – which can include a review of your accounts and advice on presentation of them to funders. To arrange this, please contact either Graham or Peter.

With kind regards from the team at Charity Fundraising and our best wishes for your continued success,

Graham Parker

Director