Fundraising in a small charity, can be an uphill battle especially when you are often competing against other Charities who fund people just to specialise in fundraising. Indeed getting others to Volunteer to help is probably the best thing you can try to do as small scale fundraising is unrestricted which too often is viewed as some sort of combination of the Golden Egg, the Holy Grail and Fountain of Youth.

I have found putting info from historic bids into a document called a "core case for support" helpful for completing future grant funding applications. Especially if you are lucky enough to recruit a fundraising team, who are drafting the bids and then you're just check them and tweaking them before they are submitted. Also recording additional evidence like a heatmap of clients stats and clients quotes as well as quotes from 3rd party agencies and volunteers about your services, helps in making the bid that bit more distinctive and likely to succeed!

 

A. fundraising ideas

 

1. Register with Easyfundraising so supporters who shop on line can donate to your charity as they shop: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/invite/49LF6T/2WFHXR

The sweetner for Colchester Foodbank is... if we encourage new causes to register through this unique referral link. They’ll match 20% of what the charity raises in their first 12 months and give it to our cause as a bonus! 

Colchester Foodbank raised £15 last quarter this way with minimal effort, by every so often reminding people in our newsletter and a quarterly tweet. It's a slow burn way to raise money but every little helps...

 

2. Facebook charitable giving.

We have raised over £600 this year so far through this source...

This allows a donate now button, for people to do a fundraiser for your charity for their birthday (etc) and for your posts to have donate now option on them as they pop up on peoples news feed.

 

3. Amazon Smile

Register for 0.5% of sale donation!

 

4. Register with Paypal giving fund

 

5. Once you've done 4 your supporters can Ebay items for charity on your behalf!

 

6. Legacy Fundraising: Including in newsletters emails "After making sure your friends and family are taken care of, if you are willing, please consider leaving our charity a gift in your Will." This is a slow burn but a supporter might want to support you after they die as well as when they live.  

7. Partnerships we have found partnering with Scouts and a local Santa has worked well with them raising money on our behalf, find a sympathetic group individual and ask them to fundraise for you! (Consider making them a Patron of your charity)

 

8. COTY: Charity of the Year ask your supporters to ask local businesses, banks and organisations if they have a COTY and if your charity could be it.

 

9.  Aviva Community Fund: Aviva social media competition for their support https://www.aviva.co.uk/good-thinking/community-fund you can get at least a £100 or twice this if one of your supporters is an Aviva customer or more if you can garner enough Social Media Support.

 

10. Join a local Lottery scheme, like Essex Lottery: www.essexlottery.co.uk

 

B In Kind Support. Treasure in kind support, it saves you spending and therefore saves your current unrestriucted funds so you don't need so much income: 

 

1. Goodgym: Perhaps you could link in with Goodgym so they can help you with a evening task that can be done in 20 minutes or so by about 20 active people, if you can think of an idea they can help with this might benefit your charity.

2. Local radio often do free adverts for charity for example in Essex ask Radio Essex for a Charity Update here http://www.radioessex.com/charity

3. Your local CVS, so in our area it's Community 360: Funding Advice [email protected] community360.org.uk/contact-us/ Bridget Tighe Engagement Officer 01206 505250 get the free advice and see if it helps!

4. Cranfield: Management Advice https://www.cranfieldtrust.org/free-business-services-charities

5. John Lewis Partnership Golden Jubilee Trust: Secondment https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/content/dam/cws/pdfs/our-responsibilities/our-communities/partner-volunteering/golden-jubilee-trust/golden_jubilee_trust_charities_leaflet_2013.pdf

6. Media Trust: https://mediatrust.org/dashboard/new-project/

7. FSI: http://www.thefsi.org Foundation for Social Improvement they gave me my fundraising training, so I rate them! Can I also recommend both the Foundation for Social Improvement's very affordable training options and their useful updates

8. Small Charities Coalition:  https://www.smallcharities.org.uk often provide useful links and training.

 

C. Other places to look for funding opportunities and this useful guide: http://involve.community/wp-content/uploads/sites/108/2017/02/Core_Costs_Dec_2016.pdf

http://www.fundinginformation.org/

 

I really hope this helps!

These are all things I wish someone had told me earlier...

Thank you Robin Archard for the inspiration of doing my #FirstPost on #CharityConnect

Michael Beckett, Interim Manager of likeable on Facebook Colchester Foodbank charity 30May18