A guide to fundraising

From Norfolk RCC

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Contents 1 Fundraising: A Beginner’s Guide 1.1 Getting Started… 1.2 Planning and Preparing for Fundraising 1.3 Legal Considerations 1.4 What you need and why 1.5 How much will it cost? 1.6 Developing a fundraising plan 1.7 Sources of Funding 1.8 Keeping Records 2 Developing a Fundraising Strategy 2.1 Sustainable Funding – the goal 2.2 Fundraising Strategy – the tool

Fundraising: A Beginner’s Guide

Getting Started…

Fundraising is one of the biggest challenges facing voluntary and community groups. All groups need some money to carry out their services and activities or to fund new projects. So, although you’d probably rather be getting on with the ‘real’ work of your group and delivering those all important services and activities, you also need to spend some time planning and preparing your fundraising activities so that you can carry on this work well into the future.

Planning and Preparing for Fundraising

It is important that you spend time planning and preparing for fundraising. Your group needs to have a clear idea about how much money is needed, by when, how it’ll be raised, and what the funding will be used for.

Fundraising can be time-consuming and demanding. It is a good idea to form a fundraising sub-group so that the work load can be shared. Many skills are required for successful fundraising: communication, organisation, enthusiasm, confidence and commitment. Working as a group you’ll be able to draw on the skills, experiences and ideas of a number of different people.

Legal Considerations

Before you start applying for money, you will need to consider whether you need any of the following:

1. A written constitution;
2. Registered charity status;
3. A bank account;
4. A steering committee or governing body;
5. Last years annual review and accounts (if applicable)
6. Insurance.

It is always good practice to ensure that you offer equality of opportunity and access to all of your services. Is access available to everyone in your community? Some funders will ask to see an equal opportunities policy.

What you need and why

Before you approach the funders you need to turn your initial ideas into a project proposal. This doesn’t have to be a long process and the written proposal should fit onto one or two typed sides of A4 paper. The proposal should contain the following:

• Evidence - A clear description of the problem, need or issue (with facts, figures or research to back up your case)
• Description - A list of all the things your organisation wants to do to meet this need
• Method - How your organisation will go about doing these things
• Evaluation - How you intend to measure the success of your proposal
• Skills and resources ¬- Why your organisation should be trusted to do the job well – have you got the experience, people, skills and resources to carry out this project?

How much will it cost?

You will need to create a budget that sets out exactly how much your project will cost. When working out how much things will cost:

• Make sure your figures are accurate
• Don’t under cost the work
• Don’t forget the ‘hidden’ costs (e.g. maintenance, insurance, repairs and rent)
• Be clear on whether your costs are one-off capital items like equipment or expenses like rent and salaries.

NB: Your budget is also there as a guide to your spending. You should compare your budget each month with your expenditure to ensure you have enough money later on to do what you planned.

Developing a fundraising plan

Once you have your written proposal and a budget, you need to plan how you will actually raise the money. You will need to think about:

• Which funders are most likely to be interested in your work?
• What resources are needed to meet each objective?
• When you need the money by? (it might help to draw up a timetable)
• Do you have the skills, contacts and time to concentrate on fundraising?
• How have other groups with similar aims raised the money?
• Could you raise some or all of the money yourselves?

The plan should set out what your funding needs are likely to be over a certain period of time and outline how you intend to raise the money to meet those needs.

Sources of Funding

You need to know where the funds are to be able to take advantage of them. There are seven main sources of funding:

1. The National Lottery
2. Trusts and Foundations
3. Statutory Funding
4. DIY Fundraising
5. Individual Donors
6. Corporate Sponsorship
7. Income Generation

Contact your local voluntary sector support organisation to get more information about these funding sources and to find out which funders might fund your project.

Keeping Records

Learn from your experiences - keep records on who you have applied to for funding and what the result was.

When you do get a grant, remember to thank the funder and to send them any reports and press cuttings about the project. You might even like to invite them over to see your project in action. Building up good relationships is essential, particularly if you want to approach the same funders for more money in the future.

Developing a Fundraising Strategy

Funding is one of the biggest challenges faced by charities – it is about maintaining the long term health, security and effectiveness of an organisation. Successful fundraising enables you to plan the long term future of your organisation. Devising, implementing and reviewing a fundraising strategy is a way for charities to work towards sustainable funding.

Sustainable Funding – the goal

Sustainability is about the long-term ability of your organisation to achieve its mission. Funding insecurities and short-term project cycles drain organisations and constrain the work they do. Sustainable funding is about moving beyond the short-term to a more durable and dependable income base. This can be achieved through:

• Strategic planning
• Grant diversification
• Income generation

Fundraising Strategy – the tool

Put simply, a fundraising strategy is a plan which sets out how an organisation intends to fund its work. It should grow out of your organisational (strategic) and project (business) plans, and adhere to the aims, timescales and resource requirements outlined within. It should be a working document, periodically reviewed by staff and the management committee, and it should be developed before you start making funding applications.

A fundraising strategy will:

• Lay out when existing funding comes to an end, and provide a timescale for replacing it
• Take the organisation’s objectives and lay out how and where funds will be raised
• Greatly enhance the chances of raising funds and save time and money by having a framework in place to focus fundraising activity.
• Allow continuity in the case of fundraising responsibilities changing hands

A fundraising strategy incorporates the following:

1) Mission Statement

A mission statement is useful when approaching potential funders as it summarises the aims and purpose of the organisation. It can also give unity to staff around a common identity, and make it clear to people outside what your organisation is about. Questions to ask yourself are: What was the organisation set up to do? What need(s) does it address? What are the main areas of work and the desired outcomes?

2) Objectives

This part of the strategy is outlining what you want to do. As virtually all new money now is for projects with specific outcomes, you will need to break down your objectives into fundable projects which are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time bound, Evaluated, and Reviewed.

3) Resources

You need to cost what resources are required to meet each objective, such as capital or revenue funding or in-kind support. Make sure you follow the principle of full cost recovery and incorporate a percentage of your ‘core costs’ into every project.

4) Current income

In order to plan for your charity’s future, you need to have a clear understanding of your current income streams and how these might be developed. Are you overly dependent on any one income source? How much of your income is restricted funding? And when do the income streams come to an end? Retaining existing sources of funding is sometimes far easier than finding new sources.

5) Potential funding

To replace existing funding, and work on bringing in funding for new work you need to identify suitable sources of funding. There are two essential activities at this stage – screening and short-listing. Screening is identifying the broad types of funding that may be appropriate to your organisation; to do this you can use FunderFinder and Grantfinder which are available at your local CVS or Local Authority. Having compiled a list of potential funders, you need to do more in-depth research into each individual funder’s guidelines – short-listing. Drawing up a table or spreadsheet with columns for geographic area, priorities, type of funding, amounts, deadlines, monitoring etc will enable you to prioritise which funders best fit your work.

6) Fundraising

When you have your short-listed funders, you need to make a plan of action – how are you going to fundraise? Who will be involved in the application process, what skills/ knowledge do they have, and how much time have they got to devote to fundraising? You need people who can write well, prepare budgets, speak to and develop relationships with funders and keep records. A good way to proceed is to form a fundraising committee where members can support and learn from each other. However you decide to fundraise, communication and coordination are essential – everyone has to be working towards the same plan.