THE CHURCH FUNDRAISING GUIDE Graciously Giving For God GRACIOUSLY GIVING FOR GOD
Planning a Fund Raising Strategy The key skills: How do you rate? Working out a fund raising strategy and then writing it down will help the group reach its goals and provide a record of what has been successful in the past as well as providing recommendations for the future. A written strategy should be like a business plan and would be a useful working document. When you start to draft a fundraising strategy your group needs to address a number of questions. What are the aims of your group? You need to keep these in mind at all times. A short statement often called a mission statement is useful as well as a set of strategic aims i.e. key work priorities to achieve your overall aims. What are your current objectives? What are you planning to do to meet the aims? What projects do you want to set up This is called a business plan. Why? Go back to your aims and check that your objectives are working towards meeting your aims. Consider each objective separately and then work out what resources you need to find and then draw up your budget. Skills Have Don t have Could do better Enthusiasm and commitment The ability to ask Persuasiveness Confidence/dealing with rejection Persistence Truthfulness Contacts Good organisational skills Good social skills Imagination and creativity Opportunism Work out what sort of money you need. 1) Capital or revenue 2) One off or on going 3) A large or a small donation Think about where you go for the grant or donation? Statutory bodies - the council, central government, primary care trusts, charitable trusts. Special funds e.g. government initiatives, lottery. Local businesses. Raise the money yourselves. If you don t have all the skills listed above, don t be disheartened. See below for some helpful tips to improve your fundraising performance: Assess your strengths, so you concentrate on doing the things you are good at. Learn what skills you need to acquire, and set about obtaining the necessary training or experience. Find ways for compensating for your weakness by getting others to help.
Fundraising Tips Call them: speak to your potential donors, don t just send letters Work backwards! Seeking donors start at Z Do your research on your potential donor Use history, back up your ask with your historical strengths Making the ask if you don t ask, you won t get! Make sure you get your facts right If you are unsure seek guidance Brainstorm together to develop good ideas The key skills: how do you rate? Do plan an exit strategy, if you are applying for money for a fixed term, for example a lottery grant for three years, you will need to show funders what will happen at the end of that period. Will the project close. Will another organisation take it over. Will you be applying for further funds? Decide how you are going to fund raise. Consider the skills of the individual members of your group or committee and divide up the tasks that best suit the members abilities e.g. Writing letters to various organisations. Preparing the budgets Speak to various funders Helping to persuade people of the merits of your scheme and application Assist in keeping files and records Organise events and raffles etc. to help in the fund raising Remember that good communication and co ordination amongst the members of your group is essential for an efficient scheme to work. You must up date each other regularly on what s been done and what the results have been. You must review your strategy regularly and ask yourselves the following- Does our plan need revising Is it too ambitious Do we need further help and training. Always make sure your group is on the mailing list for any relevant newsletters maybe a council for voluntary service/action or similar agencies. Call them: speak to your potential donors, don t just send letters! Always remember to be realistic, you may know what your project needs e.g. three youth workers, a purpose built new centre and 40,000.00 per year to run it. However you should also know that you are not going to get it not to start with at least. Nothing is more depressing than failure so within your strategy make sure your targets are achievable, break down your target in to smaller amounts. Be Imaginative and Be Informed.
What Makes a Good Application Funders need to be convinced that there is a problem which should concern or interest them. So put yourself in the funders shoes again? There is no magic formula, what you say will depend on:- Who you are? Who they are? How much you want? What you want the money for? A good way of working out what you say is to put yourself in their shoes. Imagine you are the funder one of the trustees and a member of the grants panel. What would you want to know? You would be reading a lot of applications probably in a short space of time, so you would favour those applications that were clear and concise. You would also early on in the application want to see who was applying, how much they wanted and what they wanted it for. A clear summary early on gives the impression you know what you are doing and that you are business like and importantly will achieve what you set out to do. So you have been convinced that there is a problem and it falls within your remit. Now you will want to know how the applying group will tackle the problem. There are two parts to this, the group s methods and its objectives. As an example take a group wanting to buy a mini bus! The group has described that there is a real problem out there e.g. elderly housebound people becoming isolated and depressed. They are going to tackle the problem by reducing the old people s isolation (the objective) and the (method) in this case is to get a minibus to carry them to a day centre. Therefore the mini bus is the means to an end, not the end itself, this would be important to you as the funder as you will want to know: Who will do What, to Whom and by When? Funders need telling what can be done, and what wants to be done and what will be achieved by it.! Also the funder would want to know something about the group who is applying. How long have you been going or have you just been set up for this application? What have you managed to do so far? What kind of legal structure you have got, if any? How many of you there are?
Doing it Yourself Funders need to have confidence in the application, to feel that the group has credibility with users of the service they provide, with other funders and perhaps with other agencies in the area. Whatever sort of group you are it is likely that you will need to do some form of fund raising of your own. There may be no other way of raising the money for example, also most grant donators do like to see evidence that you are trying to help yourselves. So DIY can give you credibility with funders. It may also: Give you credibility within your own community Give you additional publicity Help members of the group to feel a part of something, to feel that they are doing something about a problem, to gain skills and confidence in themselves regarding the process Things to consider Who are you trying to get money out of? Is it always the same people? Is it the people that can least afford it? Can you change this? What else is happening in your area? How many people can you count on for help? What do you need to do in advance? Will it cost money? How will you publicise it? Do you need to take out insurance? What will it cost to run? The overhead! How much can you expect to make? Is it the kind of activity that matches your profile? Is it worth the time and effort? Will it be fun? Do you have contingency plans if it rains, snows or has a power cut etc. As a funder you will want to know why you need the money and who is going to benefit from the money. Is it a result of a demand by real people for real needs etc? Is it a concrete need To do with peoples needs not just the lack of something which has never been there. Urgent need or otherwise A solvable problem or need You would also want to know that the group applying is best placed to achieve the aims intended. Generally the funders like to see a multiplier effect - the effect of their grant is greater than the actual sum of money suggests. They also want to know that the group will be able to tell whether they achieved their objective. How they will know that the funders money has been spent well? How effective has the group been in using the money? How has the group thought about evaluation and monitoring of the project? The funders will want evidence that the group can handle money effectively, they will want a copy of the budget which is clear concise, adds up and is realistic and not over inflated.
Making the application to the Charitable Trust. Once you have drafted an application ask another member of your group to run through it just to make sure you are happy that you have pitched it about right. The Grant making body Are they the appropriate donor for your appeal? Do their policies and practice match up with your appeal? Are you are asking for an appropriate amount based on the general size of grants that they would normally make? Is the timing right in terms of when they consider their grants and when you need the money? The actual application Must be legible Have style Should not be too full of jargon and abbreviations Should not assume they are idiots or assume they are experts General content should be concise Should say who you are and what you want to do Says what your group s legal status is Says what you need the money for and why Says how much and by when Says how you will evaluate the grant Says what else you are doing to raise the money Says who they can contact for further details regarding your application Is it addressed to the right person Is it personalised or does it look like a general circular letter to other organisations Should be addressed and written correctly Have the most recent address Should not be too long or too short Should not be too glossy or too scruffy Supporting material to be included in your application Accounts and budget (you must include details of these with every application) Annual report, press cuttings if relevant, leaflets etc. Application should be business like not well meaning or woolly? If unsure always check with others before making the application