Advice on fund raising

From Camlink

The following guidance on community fund raising is extracted from the website of South Cambridgeshire District Council.

Once you’ve found potential external funding sources for your project you may well need to raise additional funds to meet the project’s full costs. We hope the following tips will be useful when you’re raising funds from the community.

Be Focused

It’s really important that your objectives are clear. Funders like to know exactly what you intend to achieve with your project. Some organisations may offer goods or services rather than money. This can lead to opportunities for sponsorship and is a good way of encouraging businesses to support you. Funding agencies also often accept ‘goods in kind’ as match funding.

Be Personal

If you are writing to organisations always try to find out the name of the person who deals with your sort of en quiries. Letters are often taken more seriously if they are addressed to a named individual. Find out what sort of projects they usually support.

Be Persistent

If you are unsuccessful with a particular organisation, do not immediately dismiss them as a possible source. There can be many reasons why you did not receive funding: it may be that the organisation had awarded a grant to a similar project, or you might not have fitted their criteria. It’s always worth asking for feedback on your application if you aren’t successful.

Be Proud

Ensure that as many people as possible know about your project. Arrange an activity, whether it’s a sponsored swim or a street party and invite the local media. Involve all aspects of the media from a poster in you local shop through to the radio and television news.

Be Smart

Try and discover whether other people have carried out similar projects already. By contacting them you may gain valuable advice and support about how to run your project. It could save you both time and money. Use your local media to find out what else is going on. Here are just a few ideas to help you with your fundraising…

Dinner Party

Hold a dinner party for your friends. Invite six people and ask them to donate £10.00 each to your project. At the end of the event ask them each to go away and organise their own dinner parties – again charging each guest £10.00. If just two of your original guests go on to organise their own parties, that’s £180 raised for your project. Ask them to ask their guests to hold fundraising dinner parties as well. Don’t attend any of them, so there are more people who can invite different friends.

100 Club

A 100 Club is a local lottery. One hundred people who want to support your project (and win cash prizes) pay £1 a week. A proportion of this money goes to your project, whilst the rest goes into a prize fund, which can be won by members of the club. Each entrant is allocated lottery numbers and a draw takes place. How you divide the money is up to your group – but make sure the prizes are big enough that people will want to play! If 100 people join, that means that £1200 is raised annually. If you split the money evenly between your project and the prizes, £600 of this goes back in prizes, whilst £600 goes to your project. If your 100 Club proves successful, then why not have a 200 or even 500 club? These clubs are viewed as lotteries and legal requirements apply. Your local authority can give you a licence and regular details of the draws must be returned to them.

Sponsorship

Sponsored events can be a great way to involve the local community in your project. People will sponsor you for almost anything: car washing (especially in supermarket car parks), swimming, running, cycling, parachuting, abseiling, white water rafting, dawn to dusk walks, fasting, feasting, litter picking, non-uniform days… the possibilities are endless!

Business Partnerships

These can be an excellent way to raise the kudos of your project and involve local businesses in the community. Think about the creative ways that you could attract sponsorship. For example – does your project fit nicely with a particular product, brand name or shop? Could a local business provide some of the materials for your project rather than cash?

Collecting

Public collections can be useful both in raising money and raising your profile. Try and encourage your collectors to wear fancy dress or perhaps sing or play a musical instrument—to attract crowds and money! Find out if they can be involved in a local carnival or parade. There are rules applying to public collection. Collectors must be over 16 and you must obtain a permit from the District Council.

‘Buy a Brick’

Why not ask people to pay for something specific for your project – a tactic used to great effect in many charity adverts? For example “Your donation of £1 will buy a brick for the new village hall”, or “Your donation of £5 will go towards a new toy for the pre-school”. This lets people know where their money is going and gives them a greater sense of satisfaction. Please be aware, however, that if a donator specifies what they would like their money to be spent on, if your project changes and that item is no longer required, you are legally required to contact them and ask if they would like their money to be returned.

Other ideas

Bag packing at your local supermarket, Fancy dress race / pub crawl, concerts, celebrity involvement, dress down days, quiz nights, fashion shows, teddy bears picnics, mail shots to local businesses, auctions, discos, garden parties, balloon races.

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