Support pages

• Introduction
• Starting up
• Planning
• Raising Funds
  • Introduction
  • Ready for funding checklist
  • Help with finding funds
  • Effective Fundraising
  • DIY Fundraising
  • Saving Money
• Funding sources
• Making applications
• When you receive funding
• Promoting your organisation
• When funding ends
• In your area

Effective Fundraising

Are you ready for funding?

• If you leave at all to one person, you're losing out on other people's skills and points of view, and that person may leave!
• Many different skills are useful in fundraising, including:
  • Consulting people about their needs.
  • Budgeting skills.
  • Researching funding sources.
  • Writing application letters & filling in forms.
  • Talking to supporters (local councillors, churches- or anyone who might buy a raffle ticket or donate a prize!).
  • Keeping records.
• One option is to hold a big consultation meeting (or several), to get as many views as possible about the priorities for the next year (or 2, or 3). You could use a tool like a SWOT analysis, or a 'wall' of ideas written on post-its. You would then need a smaller fundraising task group to take the ideas forward, with regular meetings to update each other.
• 'Quick wins' (bids for small amounts to funders who let you know the results in a short timescale) are a good way to keep everyone motivated.
• See other pages in this section for more information

Key Terms:

• SWOT Analysis: A tool for helping groups to decide their future direction. Everyone lists what they think are the group's internal Strengths & Weaknesses, and external Opportunities & Threats.

What Groups tell us:

• "They say I'm a born fundraiser, but it all gets left to me, and I've had enough!"
• "The last worker left, and all our funding history is in his head. I'm trying to piece it all together, but it's hard."
• "Noreen can sell anything to anyone, but I'd rather write letters than ask people for things face-to-face, so we split the tasks."

What Funders tell us:

• "If it all depends on one key person, isn't there a risk it will all fall apart? We want to know the group as a whole owns the fundraising decisions."
• "We don't want applications written by outside professionals, we want them to come from the group itself, in their own words. That way, the passion comes through."