Fundraising news, views, client stories and more

Suffolk Deaf Association

Posted on 03 January 2014

Charity Fundraising Ltd worked with Suffolk Deaf Association to submit a major Tender which resulted in a success of £415,000. We also achieved a further £24,350 from Grant Making Trusts and Foundations, making a total of £439,350 raised through our work.

Suffolk Deaf Association is a registered charity that has been in existence for over 140 years. It supports a number of properties including Suffolk House, which is home to various hearing-related businesses and services. Most of the office holders and trustees are volunteers. The organisation supports individuals with hearing difficulties in the Suffolk area, providing sign-language courses, hearing aids and other support and advice for people with hearing difficulties.

Charity Fundraising Ltd worked with Suffolk Deaf Association to prepare a tender to the Suffolk County Council Sensory Service, which resulted in a grant of £415,000. Our services included acting as a charity bid writer and tender writing. This funding allowed Suffolk Deaf Association to run lip-reading classes, hand-in-hand classes and provide specific hearing support services. We also raised £24,350 from Grant Making Trusts and Foundations for capital and revenue projects.

“Sarah Owen’s help was pivotal in our winning three bids, each for five-year contracts, with Suffolk County Council Sensory Services. The highest scoring bid was 94.5% of the available scoring marks – which we understand may be the highest ever achievement.” Ian Finch, Trustee

Kidscape

Posted on 03 January 2014

Kidscape was the first charity in the UK established specifically to prevent bullying and child sexual abuse. Kidscape works UK-wide to provide individuals and organisations with practical skills and resources necessary to keep children safe from harm. Kidscape staff and trainers equip vulnerable children with practical non-threatening knowledge and skills in how to keep themselves safe and reduce the likelihood of future harm.

Kidscape works with children and young people under the age of 16, their parents/carers, and those who work with them. The charity provides:

  • A Helpline offering support and advice to parents of bullied children.
  • Booklets, literature, posters, training guides and educational videos on bullying, child protection, and parenting.
  • A national comprehensive training programme on child safety and behaviour management issues.
  • Advice for Parents & Carers, Professionals and Young People themselves.
  • Confidence building sessions for children who are bullied.

Our team has worked with Kidscape on a wide range of projects over a number of years providing: Funder prospect research, bid writing support, project development support and bid review as well as advising on fundraising strategy and organisational development in areas such as monitoring and evaluation. Charity Fundraising Ltd has now helped secure over £1.4Million for Kidscape in grant funding.

With our fundraising consultancy support, major grant funding has been achieved from a range of sources including:

  • Department for Education for two innovative Bullying Intervention Training programmes
  • BIG Lottery Fund – Realising Ambition programme for replication of Kidscape’s Positive Assertiveness Confidence Skills (PACS) training across England.

Autism Anglia

Posted on 03 January 2014

Charity Fundraising Ltd worked with The Essex Autistic Society (now Autism Anglia) for over three years and achieved grant funding in excess of £1.5 Million for a wide variety of developments to their service provision.

The New Doucecroft School was a flagship project for the society. With ever growing demand for their Autism specific education provision, EAS took the opportunity to purchase the Abbots Hall Campus on the outskirts of Colchester. A major Fundraising Campaign was launched to adapt, furnish and equip the campus buildings to provide a high quality learning environment with dedicated IT, Lifeskills, Physical Education, complex needs and art/craft facilities as well as state of the art sensory rooms and the phased provision of new build boarding houses.

Charity Fundraising Ltd formed a successful partnership approach with staff at EAS; whereby EAS took on community fundraising and PR activities whilst Charity Fundraising led work to achieve major grant income from Charitable Trusts, Foundations, High Net Worth Individuals, National Lottery and other funding streams.

Family Support Team
Charity Fundraising Ltd also provided fundraising services to develop multi-year salary funding for Essex Autistic Society to establish a Family Support Service for those affected by Autism and their families across Essex.

Other projects that Charity Fundraising successfully achieved funding for include:

  • Doucecroft Further Education Department – Conversion of a disused outbuilding into two floors of useable space including a classroom and meeting/training room.
  • Horticultural Equipment – A variety of horticultural equipment for students at the Further Education department; promoting vocational skills and potential employment opportunities.
  • Staff Training – Funding for a professional development course for Team leaders and Senior Support Workers.

Crossroads Care Cumbria

Posted on 03 January 2014

Crossroads Care Cumbria initially enlisted the services of fundraising firm Charity Fundraising Ltd to conduct funder prospect research, diversify the organisation’s funding sources, provide strategic advice and develop a fundraising strategy as well as delivering extensive bid writing.

Several members of the team at Charity Fundraising Ltd worked with Crossroads Care Cumbria, with each individual consultant applying their specialist skills and expertise to ensure that we offer the best possible return on investment.

In total Charity Fundraising Ltd raised £1,323,624 in grant and contract funding through a number of grant sources, including: BIG Lottery Fund (Awards for All and Reaching Communities) and the Northern Rock Foundation. We also worked closely with the client to secure multi-year contract funding for ‘Call-Off’ services. The final tender submission to Cumbria County Council was successful and had an estimated total value of £900,000.

Charity Fundraising Ltd also provided additional consultancy support. This included consultation exercises with older carers, an evaluation of their services and a feasibility study into the development of a new young carers service. The work involved leading consultation with key stakeholders, competitor analysis, identification of income streams and development of a new service and user forum.

Pro Corda

Posted on 07 September 2013

Pro Corda Trust employed the services of consultants Charity Fundraising Ltd to undertake a fundraising drive which resulted in £132,194 raised from a number of grant providers.  

Pro Corda is one of Europe’s leading music organisations, operating the International Chamber Music Academy for young musicians. An educational charity established in 1969, its mission is to provide musical training for a wide range of people through ensemble training and performance specialising in chamber music. It was reconstituted as a charitable company limited by guarantee in 2006 and now has a trading arm. The home of Pro Corda is the historic English Heritage site Leiston Abbey on the Suffolk coast.

Pro Corda’s activities include a Nationwide Chamber Music Festival for Schools and dedicated performing arts “Create Together” courses for young people with special educational needs (SEN).

We obtained funding for ‘Performing Arts & Life Skills through Ensemble Training.’ This was a unique and innovative course designed to progress the communication and social skills of children with a range of difficult and complex needs, including children; with autism; from deprived or difficult backgrounds; with other communication or social difficulties; with a range of disabilities; making the difficult transition from a Special Educational Needs environment to open society. These children experience exclusion and isolation: their difficulties with communication, self-awareness, confidence and self-esteem prevent them from participating in normal childhood activities, including the many after-school activities that more fortunate children take for granted.

Whilst Charity Fundraising Ltd mainly focussed on children with special needs, we also achieved funding for bursaries, outreach work to local schools and Pro Corda Chamber Music Festival. Our fundraising consultants worked with Pro Corda to prepare applications which achieved £132,194 in revenue funding. Successful applications included grants from the Big Lottery Awards for All, BBC Children in Need, the Equitable Charitable Trust, CHK Charities Ltd, Baily Thomas Charitable Fund and Youth Music.

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.

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