South Yorkshire Funding Advice Bureau Information Sheets Last updated January 2004 All our information is produced in a standard sized typeface, but we can produce it in other formats on request South Yorkshire Funding Advice Bureau The Workstation 15 Paternoster Row Sheffield S1 2BX Tel: 0114 249 4343 email: enquiries@syfab.org.uk Website: www.syfab.org.uk Funding Advice Line 0114 276 5460 Registered Charity No: 1061118 Reg. Company No: 3030641 Organising your fundraising information Fundraising is not something you do just once in the lifetime of your organisation. It is an ongoing task that needs a considerable amount of time and effort. This sheet looks at things you can do to organise your fundraising so that it becomes a manageable task, and not something you have to work on from scratch each time you make a funding application. Gathering Information You need to collect and keep information on the following: • your group; • the community in which you work; • users or beneficiaries of your service; • evidence of need; and • potential funders. Know your group You should have your aims and objectives written down in your constitution or another document. You should also try to write a brief history of your group and what you do. This information can be used as a basis for any funding applications. Ask yourselves: • Who set us up, and why? • How long have we been going? • What have we achieved so far? • How far have we met the needs we have identified? • What are our strengths? • What do our users think of us? Keep copies of things like favourable press releases, annual reports, user surveys, letters of thanks or praise, statistical evidence of achievements like numbers of people helped. You could get comments and commendations from supporters such as funders and other agencies or experts you have worked with. Know the need you are addressing Your group will have been set up to meet a particular need or set of needs. You have to be able to provide evidence of this need to potential funders. So, you need to collect facts and figures, reports, surveys and any other statistical evidence that will back up your argument that a need for your service exists. There are any number of places you can turn to for supporting information (census findings, local authority departments, universities and colleges). If you are stuck on where to start, try your local library and they should be able to point you in the right direction. Prove your credibility Building credibility with funders is an essential part of fundraising. One of the reasons why funders will choose to support your group will be because they believe that you are capable of doing what you say you will do. There are a number of ways your group can show that it is a ‘credible’ organisation (see section headed ‘credibility file’ further on in this sheet). Collecting together this information now can save precious time when it comes to completing applications. Storing the information Once you have started to gather together the above information you will need to organise it in such a way that it is easy to access and use. You could perhaps keep your information in different files as suggested below: Organisation file In this file keep the key written details about your organisation that will be useful to have to hand when writing a funding application. The major categories of information you might need are: • Name of group. • Date founded. • Why and how you were set up. • Copy of written aims and objectives. • Legal status - are you a registered charity, a company limited by guarantee, or an informal group? • Mission statement. • Present policies, including equal opportunities policy. • List of affiliations. • Facts and figures about your cause and evidence of need. • Recent successes. • Recent growth. • People involved in your group - paid staff, volunteers, committees, members. • Annual reports. • Audited accounts. Credibility file In this file keep information that will enhance the credibility of your group and the work you are doing such as: • Your main financial supporters, past and present - local authorities, charitable trusts, sponsors and so on. • List of prominent supporters. • Quotes from users endorsing the work you do. • Press cuttings and media coverage. • Articles supporting your area of work. • Facts and figures highlighting the importance of your work. Project file This should hold information about specific projects that you want to raise funding for. It can provide a tick list of things you need to consider to make a good project proposal: • A written description of the project. • The need for the project. • The project’s objectives. • How these objectives fit into your group’s overall aims. • Start and finish dates, or how you will continue the project into the future (often called your ‘exit strategy’). • How you will measure the success of the project. • The expected benefits or ‘outcomes’ of the project. Remember to file any relevant statistics here. • What outside partners will contribute and their details. • Collaboration with other groups or agencies. Funders File In this file keep records of: • All the funders you have approached, with the dates when you approached them and the outcome. This is useful for the future - giving you an idea of who you can go back to and when. You could keep these records on A to Z index cards or in a book or file with details filed alphabetically under the name of the funder. If you use computers you could set up a simple database to keep these details. • Copies of all correspondence between yourselves and funders in case you need to approach them again. • Thank you letters. An easy thing to forget but an important thing to do. Write as soon as you receive that cheque or offer of funding. Invite them to visit you if it seems appropriate. • Remember to keep in regular contact with your funders, sending them information about your work from time to time. In this way you are building up a relationship with them so that they remember you and feel some involvement in the work they are funding, and so are more likely to consider funding you again. Most funders like to think they are more than just ‘cheque writing machines’. Involving Everyone Doing the fundraising and organising all the information and correspondence needs to be co-ordinated within your organisation. Even if a small sub-group carries out the job itself, everyone else needs to be kept informed of progress. Ideas for projects and who to approach for funds need to be discussed and agreed by your whole group or committee. This ensures that the original aims and priorities of your group are kept to, and that no one small clique is taking control, going off at tangents, taking on more than the whole group is able to manage, or duplicating efforts. Make sure that your files or records are kept centrally and are accessible to everyone. This avoids the problem of one or two people keeping all the information to themselves and the problems that can follow if those people suddenly leave the group. Everyone needs to be able to pick up the fundraising information. This central co-ordination is also needed to make sure that two people in your group don’t apply to the same funders. Have regular report-backs to your committee meetings. Make fundraising a regular item on your committee agenda. Larger organisations could have a regular item in newsletters or bulletins. Useful books Raising Money for Good Causes: A Starter Guide by Jane Sutherland & Mike Eastwood, Directory of Social Change, 1998 Directory of Social Change, 24 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2DP Tel: 020 7209 5151 Fax: 020 7391 4804 email: books@dsc.org.uk online: www.dsc.org.uk/charitybooks © SYFAB 2003 All rights reserved. Our information is produced for local community and voluntary groups. No permission is needed for limited reproduction if the Bureau is acknowledged. Large scale reproduction or inclusion in publications for sale must have written permission from the Bureau. The South Yorkshire Funding Advice Bureau welcomes your comments and criticism. You can talk to any member of staff, or contact us by post, phone, fax or email - see the front page for details.