Funding overview
Funding advice and support
Most Charities and Community Groups need funding of some kind or another, whether it is to pay staff, hire rooms, buy equipment, pay volunteer expenses... involve can help organisations that are looking funding whether it is additional funding, new funding or ongoing fundraising. Reliance on a particular fundraising strand can leave you vulnerable if that money disappears, so a diversified fundraising strategy is most effective. We are here to support and offer guidance in:
- Developing your funding strategy and or business plan
- Exploring and identifying suitable grant/ trust/ funding sources
- Acting as a 'Critical Friend' for your draft bid/ tender
- Offering guidance for fundraising ideas/ projects
- Supporting groups to explore ways to save money internally
Here is a presentation on Better Bid Writing delivered by Bruce Wright on 28 December 2016.
Funding Alerts
To keep Bracknell Forest and Wokingham Borough charities and community groups up to date with different funding opportunities involve provides a Funding Alerts service. Funding alerts are emailed directly to you or your organisation and are targeted at specific needs, activities and/or beneficiaries.
The single-opportunity alerts format is:
- One sentence description of the funding opportunity
- Eligibility criteria
- Summary of funding opportunity: key facts
- Amount of funding available
- Key deadlines
- Weblink to further information and guidance documents
It is therefore possible to just read the initial one-sentence description of the emailed funding opportunity and decide if it is relevant to your organisation's needs.
You can see current funding alerts here.
If you would like to subscribe to this service, please complete the funding alert subscription form.
Funding ideas and options
Here are a selection of ideas and options for fundraising, but do also look at Funding opportunities, which highlights recent opportunities, and also our Funding XXX documents. These documents are a roundup of potential funding options/grants for specific areas such as disability, sport, training, churches and more. If your area of work isn't covered, let us know and we will endeavour to create a Funding XXX document for you too!
Street/Store Collections We've all seen collection boxes in pubs and shops or volunteers standing outside a supermarket on a cold Saturday morning. If you have time and staff/volunteers to support this activity this is a good way of raising money and your profile.
Donations – from individuals or businesses. If you don't ask you won't get! Tell people about your successes, your need for extra funding, why individuals or businesses should support you. Then remember to thank them!
Gift Aid Here is advice and guidance on Gift Aid.
Grants/Trusts There are hundreds of grants and trusts out there you can apply for. involve can help you find the right ones but do start with the Funding XXX documents.
Contracts/Tenders Here are some key resources on contracts:
- Contracts Finder (GOV.UK)
- South East Business Portal
- Bracknell Forest - Tenders and contracts
- Wokingham Borough Council - Tender opportunities
Events Successful events can raise a lot of money for charities or groups. You can also look for ways to join other events and simply have a stand or stall. An important thing to remember with events is how much they will cost you and how much you hope to raise – what is the profit/loss!
Legacies Donations from someone's Will can bring in quite large amounts to an organisation. This is obviously a sensitive subject so you, your staff and trustees, should be respectful to anyone when talking about legacy donations. The Institute of Fundraising (Legacies for Charities) has guidance on the principles to be aware of and how to promote legacies to the public.
Membership fees You could charge people to be members of your organisation or ask them to make a donation or contribution to your costs. You can explore charging for the services that you offer.
Sponsorship Why not try and get your events, projects, elements of your services sponsored by individuals, other groups/organisations or local businesses? You could encourage individuals or teams to take on challenges on your behalf, raising and donating sponsorship money to your cause.
Online platforms There are many online platforms to support you with your fundraising from Justgiving, Virgin Money Giving, BT MyDonate and many more. Locally there is a platform called LocalGiving, and here are details of other online platforms.
Revenue and sales Sell your stuff! Sell items, sell your services – this type of fundraising can be hugely successful but can also create a lot of work for you. You don't want to find yourself with 10,000 mugs that no one wants to buy!
Your Reserves If you have reserves, how much do you have? What is the purpose of these reserves? You should have a Reserves Policy that identifies what reserves you have and what they are for. If you are holding lots of reserves for no reason, you need to consider using this money to invest in your organisation.
Crowdfunding A relatively new but rapidly growing fundraising idea. In short, you raise money, usually via the internet and/or social media, from people who want to pledge or invest money in your project or venture. Crowdfunder.uk and UK Crowdfunding are just two of many websites dedicated to crowdfunding. These will give you more information.
We can offer you support with all of the above, giving you hints, tips and advice - just talk to us now. Contact Diane (if you are a Bracknell Forest group) or Bruce (if you are a Wokingham Borough group) or by phone - see our contact page.
Other resources and links
The Institute of Fundraising has some useful videos that can help. Look at these links for: