Paul Baird Fundraising Consultant
2020 - Recent successes.
Although we certainly do help charities to increase their income and have written many successful bids, not all of our work involves fundraising. We have supported several organisations in charity audits, assessments of capacity, efficiency, systems and needs and, through that process, have helped them to develop robust fundraising strategies which will serve them for several years.
We continue to work mainly with local/regional charities, and churches, and with community groups seeking to establish their charitable status and launch themselves into efficient service for their target beneficiaries.
Churches
Working with a church in the South East we were able to support them in writing successful bids which raised £117,000 for essential repairs making their historic building weatherproof. They are now launching a fresh appeal for funds to develop the building into a multi-purpose community hub which will serve local people more effectively.
£750,000 raised for a city church will fund all the repairs and reordering they need to set up long-term projects responding to a wide variety of local needs.
£25,000 allowed a rural parish to install a high quality electronic organ while £120,000 enabled the full refurbishment of a fine pipe organ in a significant town church.
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Urban disadvantage
Our most recent project is working with an organisation supporting severely disadvantaged women in the north. This charity is doing amazing work in the city but their cause is not immediately appealing to many funders. Their main concern is to secure core funding to maintain their essential work, but we all know how difficult that is to find. With a new fundraising strategy and targeted research, we have helped the charity to write tailored approaches to a fresh group of potential funders. We are seeing significant funding coming in to maintain current services and also to allow longer-term planning.
Projects for the Arts
Working with a local arts group, we were able to secure funding to support an initial project which engaged young people in stone carving.
A second round of Trust applications successfully secured the funding needed to launch a regional scultpure trail. We are currently working to find the money for the final stage of the project which will engage several local artists to deliver training to local people of all ages, including enhancing the delivery of arts education in lcoal schools.
The funding will also allow the charity to commission new works from established and developing artists.
Advice Services
An earlier initial process of research, evaluation and recommendation allowed a regional partnership of organisations to evaluate their strategy for action beyond their current ASTF-funded project, and build a fully comprehensive fundraising campaign for future growth and development.
We are currently supporting them in writing a major Lottery bid to secure the core service across their area for three years. At the same time, we are developing a broader strategy for sustainable fundraising which will allow the partnership to grow, and ensure the long-term delivery of advice, guidance and support to some of the most disadvantaged people in their region.
£300,000 lottery grant enabled the launch of a new project which overcomes barriers to advice services experienced by people living with disability.