They thrive on ideas
They thrive on ideas
Mencap Funding Day
Lisa Dixon Centre Haswell
“You’ve been
looking at the cash
flow projection
again haven’t
you”
Let’s get started!
Housekeeping
Introductions and Aims
Fundraising in 2014
Speed Networking!
Your Aims?
What We’ll Cover
• The problem with fundraising
• Opportunities to work together and raise money
• How to improve your bidding ability
Sources of Funding
Is it getting harder?
More pressure, slimmer chances
Fewer programmes
Shorter commitments. Less risk
More proactive partnering
Strategic Options
Consultation
More consultation, more user control
“How do you know this project is needed and how does it fit with other projects in your area?”
“How have children and young people influenced how you planned this project, and how will they continue to be involved in how your project is run?”
How have you consulted with the people and organisations who will benefit from your project and what did you find out?
Examples of consultation include:
● community surveys
● focus groups
● public meetings
● discussions with other organisations of the wider community.
You need to tell us who you have consulted and when you talked to them about your project.
Consultation should be less than two years old. If you can’t consult with the people that you want to help, tell us why. We also want to know how:
● your project has been influenced by what people have told you
● you know that the people you want to help will use your project.
Partnership
Working
Partnership = More bang for their buck
These things, we can do something about …
• Consultation and User Control
• Developing exemplar projects, especially in partnership
• Long term forward planning to target a specific trust fund
So what does this mean for you?
• Longer planning/consultation timeline• More flexibility• Better measuring, monitoring and evaluation
systems• Greater creativity and innovation• Better marketing, branding and positioning
Session 2: Opportunities to Work Together
Map What We Do …
Columns
• Who? (Your Branch)
• What? (the activity)
• When? (Frequency and calendar)
• How many? (people benefit)
• How much? (do you need)
Opportunities
In principle, what might the opportunities be to work across themes, as a single region or in partnership with other branches,
etc.
Session 3
Improving Your Bid Writing
There are over 8,500 in the U.K
Communication
Come up with an elevator speech
Communication
Fundraising is about …
Communication
Getting the balance right – Take 1
“The situation at this football club remains the situation at this football club and that will continue to be the case until such time as the situation changes” –
English Football Boss Peter Kenyon commenting on a possible change of manager.
Communication
Getting the balance right – Take 2
“We are a cherry tree in a garden filled with hungry finches. Our heavily laden boughs offer rich pickings for the siskin and the linnet, though thankfully the rosy hued crossbill is more interested in the pine nut”-
Yugoslav Football Boss Haka Flugg commenting on a possible change of manager.
“Read over your compositions, and where ever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out!”
Samuel Johnson
What goes wrong with language?
Jargon
“The resources allow a fluid response to mobilise our assets based on analysis that is inputted to HQ.”
A Northumbria Police spokesman commenting on the new motorbikes
bought by the force
“a multi-agency project catering for holistic diversionary provision to young people for positive action linked to the community safety
strategy and the pupil referral unit”?
A Go Kart Track
Birmingham professor David BoothHe applied for a £170,000 grant to unlock the mysteries of ‘the cognitive measurement of consumer criteria for manufacturer parameter values in biscuit texture’. In other words, the link between a biscuit’s texture and the pleasure from eating it.
Safeway advert for new store in Chapel-en-le-Frith‘Ambient replenishment controller’
‘to install a component into the structural fabric’.From an NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) document describing the laying of a brick.
Message from Planet Zog
Re: Annual Report text
Dear Mark
I’m not entirely sure that the text for the annual report Section ‘New Directions’tells the whole story. Could you therefore replace the text:
‘We work together in partnership with other organisations to create and delivereducational and learning opportunities for local people.’
With:
‘The shift in strategic direction is encapsulated in the conceptualisation of theAction Zone, which is an holistic, integrated action research response to tacklingproblems of social disadvantage inner cities through learning.’
Phrases that came out of a workshop at Shotton Hall in 2006 help G.P.s understand their patients
‘shizcourtlopzagayn’
‘thebairnsfullacahd’
‘Avebeenabitootakilter’
‘Thelasssezshizfhallinwrang’
‘Avebrowtmeganniescakky’
Orwell’s Golden Rules of Writing
“Ask ‘what am I trying to say? … Ask ‘could I
have put it more shortly? … Never use a
figure of speech that you are used to seeing
in print … Never use a long word when a short one
will do … If it is possible to cut out a word, always
cut out a word … Never use jargon if you can think
of an everyday equivalent”
George Orwell
“Speak the speech I pray you …”
1. detrimental2. sufficient3. ongoing4. verify5. ascertain6. parameters7. utilise8. modify9. remuneration
10. facilitate11. magnitude12. optimum13. viable14. close proximity15. augment16. implement 17. expedite18. terminate
19. concur20. adjacent21. maximise22. endeavour23. accomplish24. acquire25. advantageous
Acronyms
Youth Opportunities Building Scheme
Supporting Hartlepool In The Environment
Stabling and Habitation Implementation Team
Urban Partnerships. Stanley Hall InitiativeTeam.Community Resource Education andEmployment Centre.
www.UPSHITCREEC
Poor language
Awful adverts
Available: French speaking secretary who speaks floorless English
Try our exciting bikinis. Simply the tops
Try our cough syrup. You will never get any better.
Now you can borrow enough money to get completely out of debt!
On my travels …• Sofia Airline Office: ‘We take your bags and send them in
all directions’
• Budapest Zoo: ‘Please do not feed the animals. If you
have any suitable food give it to the guard on duty’
• Billboard on leaving JFK – ‘If you can’t read, we can help’
• Sign on the air conditioning control in a hotel room in
Arusha, Tanzania ‘If you want to cool down, please
control yourself’
• In a Moscow bar: ‘Special cocktails for ladies with nuts’
Good Language
Simple
Direct
Natural
Visual
Focused
CAF / European Foundations Centre 2006 Research Task Force
Top 15
Next 485
£1.6 Billion
£1.6 Billion
They exist to give ….
Many operate on a skeleton staff
They thrive on ideas
They don’t like dependency
The published research• Directory of
Social Change
• Funding Information North East
• Your Council for Voluntary Service
DSC Publications
£75.00
£75.00
How old?
Socio – economic group?
Gender?
Geographical location?
Racial group?
Trustee Profile?
From Red To Green …
Take account of the pressure
Try to be interesting
Allow for misunderstanding
They need to buy into the business case, but
they also need to CARE!
Building blocks of an effective proposal
“… the worst (proposals) are hernia inducing slabs of desktop publishing literature, press cuttings, pamphlets, booklets and endorsements that no one honestly has the time to read”
Wates Foundation Annual Report
2001/2
Proposal Structure
Summary
Establish your credentials
What’s wrong?
What will you accomplish?
What will you do?
The Budget
Evaluation
1
6
2
5
3
4
7
Summarise
The Essentials
“ I had six honest serving men.
They taught me all I knew.
Their names where How, and Why and When and What and Where and Who.”
Kipling
USP’s
Toyota Prius
Porsche 911Smart
Honda
USP’s
Service
AchievementsCulture
People
The magic
formula?
What’s wrong?
eople
itched
recise
assionate
Effective Need (or Problem) Statements …
… are about the people you help, not the project you run
The Logic Model
Inputs
Process
Outputs
Outcomes
The resources put into the organisation
How the organisation uses these resources
What the organisation does
The impact or effect of what the organisation has done
The Lack of an Input
‘The Poortown estate needs a community centre because we have nowhere to run education sessions, confidence building workshops, cooperative development activities and a job club’.
The Lack of an Outcome
‘On the Poortown estate unemployment, poverty and crime rates are very high. The drug problem is increasing as young people feel increasingly alienated and have little chance of a job. We have nowhere to run the range of activities that could help improve the quality of life for local people, give them a route out of poverty and create real opportunity for the youngsters.’
Pitched
How ‘poor nutrition’ can be sold to a variety of funder's
For a funder interested in the welfare of children
Poorly nourished children suffer from increased vulnerability to fatigue, headaches, irritability, inability to concentrate and frequent colds. Iron-deficiency anaemia in children can lead to developmental and behavioural disturbances. Hungry children are less likely to interact with other people or explore or learn from their surroundings.
For a funder interested in education
Poor nutrition has a negative impact on children’s ability to learn in school. School-aged children who are hungry cannot concentrate or do as well as others on the tasks they need to perform to learn the basics. Research indicates that low-income children who participate in School Breakfast Programmes show an improvement in test scores and a decrease in lateness and absenteeism compared to other students who do not eat breakfast.
For a funder interested in the welfare of the elderly
Malnutrition caused by poor eating habits can exacerbate chronic and acute diseases and speed the onset of degenerative diseases among the elderly. This not only leads to an unnecessary decrease in the quality of life for many older people, but also increases the cost of health care. National data for people aged 65 to 75 show that a majority are not consuming even two-thirds of the nutrients they need to stay healthy.
For a funder interested in mental health issues
Hunger, and insecurity about whether a family will be able to obtain enough food to avoid hunger, also have an emotional impact on children and their parents. Anxiety, negative feelings about self-worth, and hostility towards the outside world can result from chronic hunger and food insecurity.
Precise
Make it Precise
Compare the following statements:
Consumer credit is at an all time high in the UK
AND:
Between us we owe credit and mortgage companies £1 trillion!
Make it Concrete
Compare the following statements:
Many of the teenagers suffer from social problems. Poverty and drugs use are rising.
AND:
Unemployment amongst 16-25 year olds currently stands at over 80%. These young people have 3 times as much chance of sampling hard drugs before they leave school than those in other areas of Tyneside, such as Heaton, Jesmond or Gosforth. Heroin use has doubled in the last five years. Last month another family lost their 15 year old child to a heroin overdose.
Make it Tangible
Compare:
We now make more telephone calls than ever before.
AND:
In the last 24 hours, more phone calls were made in the UK than during the whole of 1983.
Passionate!
Answer this question …
So what?
Three Stages to Understanding
Clarify the need
Demonstrate the results
Describe the tools
1
2
3
Bridge the comprehension gap
We can make some young people more employable by building their self esteem, team skills and confidenceThe problem is youth
unemploymentWe do this by organising rock climbing sessions
The problem
On the Poortown estate unemployment, poverty and crime rates are very high. The drug problem is increasing as young people feel increasingly alienated and have little chance of a job.
The Outcome
We want to run a range of activities that could help improve the quality of life for local people, give them a route out of poverty and create real opportunity for the youngsters.’
Budget
They need to buy into the business case, but
they also need to CARE!
The Budget
London Olympics
• Costings went from
£4 billion to £9 billion
• Forget to include the
VAT
• Put in £2.7 billion
‘contingency’!?!
Create financial momentum
Momentum Management
Version A
Expenditure
£10,000
Income
Nil
Balance Required
£10,000
Momentum Management
Version B
Expenditure
Salary £8,500H/L/P £1,000Travel £1,500Training £1,000Telephone £500Postage & stationary £500Rent £6,500Audit £500Printing £500Total £20,500
Momentum Management
Version B
Expenditure
Salary £8,500H/L/P £1,000Travel £1,500Training £1,000Telephone £500Postage & stationary £500Rent £6,500Audit £500Printing £500Total £20,500
Momentum Management
Version B
Income
Local Authority £8,500S&G Accountants £500The Inkspot Print Co £500The Moneybags Trust £1,000Total £10,500
Result …
Still need £10,000, but this is now less than 50%
Step one – roll in some of your own money
Target £100,000
• Money raised so far £60,000
• Our own resources £30,000
• Balance still to raise£10,000
Step two– roll some of it out
Target £100,000
• Money raised so far £70,000
• Our own resources £20,000
• Balance still to raise£10,000
Do all this – and the cheques get written!