Fundraising news, views, client stories and more

1st Norwich Scouts new HQ 2

Norwich Sea Scouts

Posted on 07 September 2013

1st Norwich Sea Scout Group is perfectly situated, just to the south of the City on the banks of a small river. The charity offers young people a diverse range of recreational, personal development, sporting and educational opportunities including: canoeing; boating; climbing; camping; orienteering; cooking; and numerous other activities. The group is environmentally conscious and caters for young people with physical and mental disabilities.

The charity’s aim in 2010 was to secure capital funding to build a new community HQ facility on the existing site that would become the new home of 1st Norwich Sea Scouts by early 2013. Through an excellent community fundraising campaign, the organisation made good progress towards raising the £400,000 needed to complete the build before enlisting the professional services of Charity Fundraising Ltd to lead on trust fundraising for the project. Our objective was to secure the remainder of the necessary capital funding.

Over 26 days of consultancy time, our team worked closely with the project management committee; conducting funder prospect research and acting as a charity bid writer for them. Our grant successes ultimately totalled over £85,000, including contributions from Norwich-based Trusts, the Clothworkers’ Foundation and Trusthouse Charitable Trust.

Demolition of the dilapidated existing building and construction of the new facility commenced in 2012 and the new HQ was completed in early 2013. The building was built using sustainable materials and methods and provides both the group’s young members and the wider community with a warm, safe, stimulating environment in which to run a spectrum of activities.

Age UK Norwich Lottery Funding

Age UK Norwich

Posted on 07 September 2013

Age UK Norwich is a longstanding client, having started working with Charity Fundraising Ltd in early 2011. They continue to be a valued client receiving grant fundraising support, strategic consultancy and evaluation services.

To date, Charity Fundraising Ltd has raised £985,392 for Age UK Norwich with a return of over 12 times their investment with us. Successes include grants from the Big Lottery Fund, Comic Relief and the Charles Hayward Foundation, which have funded vital support work such as befriending, advice and outreach services for older people (including those with dementia and their carers).

As well as outsourced fundraising, the services we have offered to Age UK Norwich include strategy development, bid review and mentoring and boosting the charity’s internal monitoring, evaluation and community consultation efforts. These measures provide highly valuable evidence of Age UK Norwich’s impact as well as highlighting key areas for improvement and best practice working for disseminating to other Age UKs.

Commonweal Housing

Posted on 30 July 2013

Commonweal Housing is a registered charity that aims to resolve those social injustices where a combination of housing and support services for people will help them establish themselves in life through making wise choices and so have a fair chance to realise decent aspirations.

Re-Unite South London was a pioneering new housing project that enabled mothers to be re-united with their children following the mother’s release from prison. The project was inspired by the Corston review of vulnerable women in the criminal justice system. The project was designed to rectify a major social injustice, the ‘Catch 22’ situation facing hundreds of women leaving prison who want to re-establish family life with their children. Typically, a woman is unable to get her children back from social care unless she has somewhere suitable to live, but she is not entitled to suitable housing, unless her children are living with her. The Re-Unite project aimed to overcome this barrier by providing housing for up to two years for women and their children to live independently, assisted by personalised support from a key worker. It also provided anonymity and protection for women who have experienced domestic violence.

Domestic violence is a frequent issue; with threats from abusive partners continuing even during prison terms, women are unable to return to their former family home. Even moving to another location may not be enough to end threats or incidence of violence. Hence, if domestic violence remains a possibility, the housing provided is equipped with security measures such as external lighting and CCTV cameras and if necessary a physically secure “refuge room” within the property.

Engaged by Commonweal Housing to work with them on the Re-Unite South London project, Fundraising Consultants at Charity Fundraising Ltd advised on governance issues, researched potential funders and acted as bid writing consultants, drafting funding applications for project costs including salaries.

Graham Parker, Director at Charity Fundraising Ltd, said; “The prognosis for the ex-offender on release from custody depends not just on their genuine good intentions but also their housing and the support network which is available to them on release. We are delighted to have achieved funding to provide the best possible chance of success for women on release from custody and to enable them to be re-united with their children in a supportive environment. ”

Fundraising Consultants at Charity Fundraising Ltd raised £356,114 for Re-Unite South London, a return of more than 20 times the fee for the work undertaken.

 

cbm Ireland

Posted on 30 July 2013

cbm Ireland is a branch of a major international development charity, working in over 100 countries across the world. They initially contracted our services to produce four major bids for The Civil Society Fund of Irish Aid. Working directly with the Central Africa Regional Office and liaising with the Irish office, we produced all of the bids to a tight timescale. Each of these bids succeeded and achieved a total sum of €1,504,416 for development work in Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo. These were for major programmes of medical intervention for people with cataracts, glaucoma and vision impairment as well as orthopaedic surgery, physiotherapy and prosthetics for people with disabilities. The funding also enabled a wider range of benefits through HIV/AIDS awareness raising, empowerment of women’s rights, micro-enterprise schemes and primary education bursaries.

Following this, we then supported the monitoring and reporting on these programmes. We also took the lead role in moving cbm on to the next phase of longer term Government co-funding. Our work to achieve this included: detailed programme planning and design both in the field with cbm partners and regional staff in Africa; major bid preparation; development of a strategic plan and policy documents; and presentations and meetings with senior staff at Irish Aid. This work was all successful and block funding of a further €2,550,000 over three years was granted.

Construction Youth Trust

Posted on 30 July 2013

Construction Youth Trust, CYT,  supports young people whose journey to work can be challenging due to barriers relating to their financial circumstances, lack of awareness of opportunities in the industry, low self-esteem, gender or ethnicity. With the support of a number of major construction companies, CYT raises awareness and assists disadvantaged young people to access employment in the construction sector. The Trust achieves its goal by undertaking a number of programmes ranging from construction skills courses delivered via a mobile classroom to hands-on learning on projects for local communities, and from work placement schemes to guidance sessions.

When CYT first engaged with us, they were looking for some help with their grant fundraising. Overall, we worked with CYT for four years, delivering a range of services in addition to bid writing in order to help them grow and diversify their income.  In total, £693,244 was achieved in grant funding for the organisation, including from public sector, the lottery, trusts and foundations across the UK.  We also worked with CYT to put in place the systems and procedures necessary to support public sector tendering including monitoring, evaluation and impact reporting. As the demands of fundraising grew we assisted with the recruitment and induction training of an in-house fundraising assistant.  As the fundraising landscape changed, we highlighted the growth of social investment models and the requirements they place on an organisation seeking funding.

Our support included:

  • Research, consultation and analysis of beneficiary needs
  • Grant prospect research
  • Grant and Tender Bid Writing
  • Preparation for public sector commissioning
  • Project and Fundraising Recruitment support
  • Monitoring and evaluation framework design and mentoring

 

“Charity Fundraising Limited have proved themselves to be a valuable source of advice and expertise across a wide range of financial and governance topics, both at strategic and at hands-on levels. Highly professional, they are approachable and always willing to listen; they adopt an open, friendly approach to working with our team and take the trouble to ensure that they fully understand our background, culture and what it is we are trying to do. Their contributions whether written, in discussion or in presentations are well researched, couched in appropriately accessible language and carefully considered giving us the maximum possible benefit from their time. Their concise monthly reports on progress and expenditure make it easy for us to understand and report to our Board on what we are getting for our money.
We have worked with Charity Fundraising Limited since August 2010. In that time they have not only assisted us to raise a good deal of money from the voluntary and public sectors, they have also supported the development of our in-house capacity, contributed to the induction training of new members of staff and continue to identify new opportunities for us to develop our delivery, services and indeed our organisation. Having worked with them for over two years and with their assistance having developed a significant in-house fundraising team, we are keen to work with them further, as they continue to provide higher value-add contributions at a strategic and developmental level.” Jo Hills, Operations Director

Ipswich Disabled Advice Bureau

Posted on 30 July 2013

Ipswich DAB provides free and confidential advice, information, advocacy and services to individuals with disabilities and we aim to provide advice and information to organisations and agencies serving people with disabilities in Ipswich and the surrounding area.  They also work to improve statutory services, educate public opinion and co-operate with similar bodies.

Charity Fundraising Ltd started providing charity consultancy services to Ipswich DAB in December 2010 and we have undertaken Grant Funder Research, Bid Writing and Bid Reviews as well as working alongside Ipswich DAB to design new projects. These projects have predominantly focused on coping with change as a result of Government cuts and changes to the benefits system, with an emphasis on helping people to move forward with their lives.

As fundraising consultants, we have also offered advice and guidance on: managing staff and volunteers, website design and content, presentation of annual reports, networking with other organisations and publicity through media coverage. We have identified potential charity partnership opportunities and discussed the benefits and ways of implementation.

Charity Fundraising Ltd have helped to set up service user consultations including devising suitable questions and format for the consultation. As part of our charity consultancy, we have also discussed other monitoring and evaluating methods and helped to implement these within the organisation.

We have worked alongside Ipswich DAB management to identify skills gaps within the organisation and secured funding to enable staff to access suitable training to address these skill gaps.

Charity Fundraising Ltd has helped Ipswich DAB achieve £420,326 in grant funding to date from a range of trusts, foundations and BLF Reaching Communities.

“We have been very happy with the services we have received and have learnt a lot about fundraising. Issues such as how we market ourselves e.g our website, presentation of our annual accounts, using our AGM to celebrate our achievements, and networking, as well as looking at our work in terms of specific ‘projects’ or objectives, rather than categorising it all as core services had not really been on our radar previously. We certainly never considered them as being related to fundraising! The icing on the cake is that everyone is friendly and approachable and we could discuss and plan together, with our preferences for a particular course of action being a driving force.” Pat Ramsey, Manager

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