A presentation on how to write your very own application for funding to charitable trusts and foundations, delivered by Corinna Hartwig at one of the Eden Project’s Big Lunch Extras community camps. Corinna (AKA @Funding Doctor) specialises in giving practical, grassroots funding advice for community groups, local councils, small charities, schools and social enterprises.Find out more about Big Lunch Extras at www.biglunchextras.com
2. Writing a Trust Fund Letter
Overview of workshop:
• Funding environment
• What are trust funds/ foundations & where to
find them?
• What makes a good letter – back to the
classroom!
• Practical exercise
• Fingers crossed and why have Plan B
• Wrap up & questions
5. Funding Environment –
the funding mix
Asking Earning
Grant FundingGift economy Structured Market Open Market
Donor Funder Purchaser Consumer
6. What are trusts & foundations?
Trusts and foundations
26,600
Trusts and foundations
which don’t make grants 11,700
Trusts &
foundations
which make
grants
Grant making
charities
28,700
9. What do they fund?
Trusts and foundations like to fund what government does not
fund:
New methods of tackling problems;
Disadvantaged and minority groups that face barriers in
accessing services, or which have inadequate access to
services;
Responses to new or newly discovered needs and problems;
Work which is hard to finance through conventional
fundraising;
One-off purchases or projects;
Short- and medium-term work which is likely to bring a long-
term benefit and/or to attract long-term funding from
elsewhere.
10. What are pros of applying to a trust
or foundation?
For larger funders there is not much difference with grants
from public sector funding (i.e. government)
Today we concentrate on smaller trusts and foundations:
Simple procedures
Flexible about what they can fund
Wide range of interests
Often prepared to fund something
new and untried
Often prepared to fund more unpopular causes
11. What’s the downside of applying
to smaller trusts and foundations?
• Extensive research for appropriate fund
• Timing (some meet only twice a year)
• Lack of feedback & advice
• Few give large grants (tends to be £100s
rather than £1000s).
• Most are too small to fund salaries
• Most fund CHARITIES only or organisations
which are accepted as charitable e.g. churches
13. What makes a good letter?
Tell a Story
Research and relationships
USP – what makes your project
different
Specifics
Timing
+ Who, what, why, when & how
20. Project costs
Item Supplier
Costs (incl.
VAT) paid for/donated For Grant
Village Entry Gate
costs Fencing & Gate Supplier £ 4,000.00 £2,000.00
Village Entry Gate part
funding Local Council £ - £ 2,000.00
Banner 4x design volunteered time £ - £ 50.00
print Universal Signs £ 240.00 £ 240.00
Posters A4 200x design volunteered time £ - £0.00
print Minuteman Press £ 43.20 £ - £ 43.20
Leaflets 1000x design volunteered time £ -
Minuteman Press £ 80.00 £ 80.00
Hi Vis Jackets (50xkids) kidshivis.co.uk £199.50 £199.50
Cllr Locality Budget £ 199.50
Hi Vis Jackets
(30xadults) kidshivis.co.uk £ 134.70 £134.70
Cllr Locality Budget £ 134.70
Reflective badges(50x) co-op funeralcare £ 23.00 £ 23.00 £0.00
Volunteer time pre-event 23h @ 6.31 £ 149.13 £ 149.13 £0.00
during event 20h @ 6.31 £ 126.20 £ 126.20 £0.00
Design equivalent £ 175.00 £ 175.00 £0.00
£ 5,170.73 £ 2,807.53 £2,747.40
21. Funding Environment –
the funding mix
Asking Earning
Grant FundingGift economy Structured Market Open Market
Donor Funder Purchaser Consumer
22. Wrap up and question time
Enjoy and thank you
Corinna Hartwig
@FundingDoctor
www.fundingdoctor.co.uk
Editor's Notes
Did you know ….There were over 161,000 active voluntary organisations in the UK in 2011/12 (NCVO Civic Society Almanac 2014)
Active organisations are those that have submitted an annual return in the last 3 years.
In the UK there are 2.5 voluntary organisations for every thousand people. This is equivalent to one voluntary organisation for every 400 people.
This estimate does not include a large number of ‘below the radar’ informal groups that are not registered charities.
City of London has the highest number of organisations per 1,000 people. On average within the UK there are 2.6 voluntary organisations for every 1,000 people.
What does that mean for you all, a group of people in this room:
It means that you are competing against each other for funding – and fundraising is hard because – at local level – you are competing with the local charities, clubs (from bowling to Scouts), forums, play & baby groups, open space projects, food growing, food bank but also larger national charities etc….
You are not alone:
Characteristics of voluntary organisations, by size 2011/12
over half (51% = 82,000) of the sector’s organisations have an annual income of less than £10,000 (‘micro’ organisations)
A further (33% = 53,000) are categorised as ‘small’ and have an annual income of less than £100,000.
Refer to Almanac What activities does the vol sector undertake:
Top 3:
Social Services
Culture & recreation
Religion
“Knowledge is power” – do your home work and check out what others do in your area.
Also – how does your project fit in with local, regional & national strategies.
For example:
Southwark C strategic plan is in their website: http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200342/council_plan
Enough of demoralising statistics. Let’s turn to the funding spectrum to have a look at all the opportunities that are out there for you.
Allow me to take a little time to talk about the sustainable income spectrum:
Explain the spectrum
Examples:
Donor – all charitable DONATIONS, anybody GIVING money or resources to you – unrestricted income but time consuming
Example: collections, donation, philanthropists, raffles, quiz nights –
Funder – Governement Funding or Trust funding (grants) –you are receiving monies in return for delivering agreed OUTCOMES or OUTPUTS (more of the funding specific jargon later we we will look at the Outcomes Pyramid). You will need to demonstrate to the funder that you achieve what you have set out to do.
Example: BIG Lottery Funding – Big Local – government money is made available to support certain communities with high needs
Trust & foundations are in this category too and we are here to concentrate on those today.
Purchaser – In the structured market you have an agreed contract between the organisation & the purchaser (such as procurement & contracting – often advertised as tenders). The purchaser can come from the public, private or voluntary sector.
Example: Drug and alcohol abuse charity has a contract with the local council to roll out a number of counselling sessions. The beneficiaries don’t pay for the service.
DEFINITION: Beneficiary is a person who receives money or other benefits from a benefactor (somebody who does good)
This category will become more and more important as there is less and less money available through grant funding (at least from government side)
Consumer – here the organisation is directly selling good or services to the consumer.
Example: the same Drug and alcohol abuse charity offers paid for counselling sessions to members of the public who are willing to pay for those. Other example is a community shop selling their goods.
What is not on this spectrum is Crowdfunding, Community Shares & loan funding – unfortunately we don’t have time to talk about these in more detail.
Ideally, you want to generate income from all those 4 categories in order to have a sustainable income spectrum – so ypour are drawing your income form a variety of sources. Which is much safer in the long term as you are not juts relying on any one source that can come to an end.
Right – now we understand the Sustainable Income Spectrum (You can find it on the NCVO website) and there are links on the resources sheet that Jeni will email you after the event. Let’s look at trust & foundations as I was asked to concentrate on those today
Let’s get something straight:
Trusts, foundations and grant-makers are all terms used with the same meaning – and belong in the category of Grant Funding in the Spectrum But they are different!
A foundation is a type of trust whose income derives from an endowment of land or invested capital, but not all trusts and foundations make grants, some undertake directly their own charitable activities. I.e. a capital sum given to them by a rich individual, family or company. The endowment may take the form of cash, stocks, shares, or land. It provides a tax-exempt income which funds their grant-giving.
They exist because they want to do some good.
Example : Karis May Darling Foundation. This foundation was set up by Karis May’s mum and dad after she died sadly & suddendly. Karis May was full of life and her foundation now helps to support children in the Thurrock/Corringham Area. Last year they were even on the TV Show “Surprise Surprise” as inspirational parents who give back to the community. They have helped to build a community centre in Corringham, contributed to a playground revamp and many, many other things.
Many of the Charitable Trusts in the UK do not have any paid staff or publish a grant application - so you need to know what approach to take to generate a good response from this source of funding. Since most funding bodies receive more requests than they can fund, we will focus on what is going to make your letter stand out!
As a general rule grant-making trusts and foundations follow their own direction rather than being led by the Government of the day.
They have a view on what they want to achieve and how that will benefit local communities.
They don’t deliver work on the ground. Instead they give grants to community groups and charities who do, reaching the people they want to reach, achieving the outcomes they are looking for.
Applying to trusts and foundations is largely about demonstrating how your particular project can help them achieve their purpose.
Trusts and foundations come in all shapes and sizes and give grants for a wide variety of causes. Some are focused on particular geographical areas, others only give to certain types of organisation, some concentrate on a well-defined community, others are interested in funding for particular areas of work or general themes.
They mainly give to CHARITIES – so if you are not one – bare that in mind.
Different types of funding
Trusts provide a variety of different types of funding:
kickstarting funding - to get a project off the ground
revenue – to cover running costs, including salaries
capital – to pay for building costs or equipment
project funding – to pay for a mixture of items within a project budget, sometimes including a contribution towards overheads and management time
core/long-term funding – there are a few trusts who provide this kind of partnership funding over a number of years
small grants – trusts of all sizes often have a small grants programme which involves less paperwork and a faster response time. This is often a good way of getting to know a trust and establishing a working relationship with them.
new ways of doing things
targeting disadvantaged people
unpopular causes.
They are often run by family members or their solicitors. Out of 4000 Truts only 350 have dedicated members of staff who manage applications.
Besides the example of the Karis May Darling Foundation here a few more examples of different Trusts so that you get a flavour of what they are about. Some of them are new to me too so I am reading from my notes:
.
Hertfordshire Children’s Fund is a small, volunteer-led charitable fund that aims to help disadvantaged children in Hertfordshire aged 0 – 16 years living in families on a low income, where real need exists and statutory funding is insufficient.
There are also corporate foundations and one example is the
Lloyds TSB Foundation
We invest in charities supporting people to break out of disadvantage at critical points in their lives.
Our funding programmes offer short and long term grants. Support is adapted to the needs of small and medium sized charities that are committed to delivering work which breaks or prevents cycles of disadvantage.
About 70 %of trusts and foundations give in the health and social welfare fields.
30 % give to the arts and recreation and
9% per cent give to causes related to religion.
They might fund anything from a slide for a playgroup or fund a 3 year project to deal with drug addiction
amongst young people.
After al this information overload let’s move onto writing a letter.
Here are the different elements that we will need to write a good letter.
Tell a story
Very important is the story that you are telling:
But make sure you are telling it from the funders point of view – HOW WILL HIS MONEY MAKE THINGS BETER???
Tug on those heartstrings and make the message you are trying to get across more personal.
Case studies are vital in trust fundraising so keep a constantly updated supply to hand, with quotes if possible.
Look at the rhythm of your proposal – does it come together well and flow as an entire document, or is it a bit disjointed?
It should be easy to read, just like a story, with a beginning, middle and end. However, do make sure that there are some hard facts along with the emotional side of things (see the section on Specifics below).
A quick trip back to the classroom
Explain how the Pyramids work
Trustees do not appreciate vague applications. They simply have not the time to try to understand what you are trying to get across.
Let me talk you through this very useful tool
Example of the slide
Be specific with facts and figures when writing about why your project needs their money,
and be specific again about exactly how much money you are asking for.
Finally, be specific when you are telling them what you will do with their money, how many people/animals etc will benefit, what the intended aims and outcomes of your project are, and in what timescale.
But always come from the angle: Tell the funder how his money will make a difference.
Get your timings right – it’s no good if you have a brilliant letter and the deadline was yesterday!
Find out wherever possible when the trustees’ next meeting is and when the cut off date is for you to send in your bid. Ensure you leave yourself plenty of time to write the bid, obtain any signatures or referees’ details required, and allow time for others to critique your bid and make amendments.
And don’t forget the formal format of a letter:
As a guide no more than 2 A4 pages for a smaller amount and up to 4xA4 pages for larger ones (i.e. £3000)
Address the letter to a person (not some black hole)
Make sure your contact details are on it – and are correct
Make sure that you use bullet points and pictures
End the letter appropriately and check, check, double check & triple check. Spellings and flow & content. Can’t say it often enough!
Tell the funder how his money will make a difference.
Let a friend or relative read it and use their comments to improve it! (it’s so easy to assume people KNOW what you are trying to say) – they don’t so SAY IT clearly.
Also under the heading Timing, thank any trust that gives you a grant immediately and do not forget to diarise the date by which you need to submit a grant report, allowing plenty of time for you to collate the relevant information from all parties.
Right – enough of me– now it’s over to YOU to put some of the theory into practice:
Here is what we are going to do:
You are going to write collectively a letter to apply to the Police Community Trust as you are looking for money to roll out a traffic awareness campaign in your area.
[Use Sheet Resources for Case Study to explain]
Always make time to have Plan B up your sleeve – it might be the one that will get you the success. And you will find that the more letters and appeals you write, the better you become at it and soon you will be a pro!
Don’t forget that fundraisers are AGENTS OF CHANGE – just as much as your project!