Tracey Guiry CEO

Fundraising – session intro

• Research and understanding of audience• Focus on revenue funding approaches• Focus on arts organisations, some on individuals – all

scalable, same basics apply whether it’s £500 or £500000. • Time for questions

Will you give me money to….? Three protagonists – you, them, the money. Identifying your offer – developing packages – identifying potential funders/’buyers’ – making approaches – managing the relationship

Who am I, and what can I offer?

• Identity – identification; who are you, how do you define yourself (work, craft, audience customer, output)

• Organisation/group• Mission• Aims• Business plan

• Individual – (if you were an animal…) • Brand values • Before ‘what do I want them to fund?’ should come ‘what do I want to do?’ Describe your project/activity

– What I want to gain?– How does this fit with my individual/organisational mission/aims?– Project need – what’s the evidence? – How do I know my project will suit/answer the need? What would happen if I didn’t do your activity? – Who is involved in my activity; artists, organisations, agencies, audiences? – What does each element cost? – Can I deliver the activity? (skills, resources, financial management, insurances, legal policies) – busy fool syndrome. – Be brave enough to say no.

• Produce a full, costed project plan, business plan, audience development and marketing plan, with budget for the project as you want to do it

Who are ‘they’?

• People who either choose, or who’s job it is, to give money towards Arts/Cultural activity

• Public grant givers: Lottery Funders, Arts Council England, Big Lottery, Heritage Lottery Fund

• Private grant givers: Trusts and Foundations, large grants/endowments set up to give support through grant giving functions

• Local Government : Commissioning - any spend of public money by Govt now managed to get best value through tender processes.

• Sponsors: people who give to causes with expectation of return• Donors: people who give to causes with no expectation of return • People

Develop and define your ‘offer’• When you’ve established what you are doing – what the project is,

think about what you need in order to meet your aims? • Money / resources / services – not always cash • Develop your package(s)

• What can you offer to someone else? Products? Shows/Performances? Artefacts? Press and media profile? Access to audiences? Reputation?

• How much are you prepared to give? ( in terms of time, company profile, resources, ethical/legal considerations, brand alignment, values and perceptions

• How can the activity you are offering be described – elevator pitch? • Project outline, Full project proposal, Full cost recovery budget and financial

management arrangements, Images, colour, personality

• Set your price

The price

• Your value in £: you, your work, time and effort, cost of production (full cost recovery), rarity, the people you are able to reach, the impact on your audience, the difficulty of producing the work or getting it to audiences.

• The people you interact with everyday may be someone else’s hard-to-reach niche customer/audience

• Keep your offer simple, easy to understand - products, bundles, sets of timed activity, artifacts, full costs, exclusive funder, partial funder, match?

• Actual Cost + goodwill (added value) + impact + reach = value to sponsor

• Be brave, peer review, competitive, don’t undersell

Finding that special someone…• It’s a sales job – supply and demand, company/customer,

professional relationship • Research the marketplace

• Organisational: who would appreciate/understand/value your activity? • Audience: who is your audience and what else do they like to do?

• Who else is funding similar work?• Not only to avoid duplication - make partnerships, new collaborators,

unearthing historical/social/cultural/productive links, finding organisations who have funded in the past etc.

• Create a list of targets, people/organisations to approach• Find out all you can about them• Prioritise them• List how you will approach/reach them • Have something to leave behind (materials, print etc)

Approaches • Public grant givers: Lottery Funders, Arts

Council England, Big Lottery, Heritage Lottery Fund

• Private grant givers: Trusts and Foundations, large grants/endowments set up to give support through grant giving functions

• Local Government : Commissioning - any spend of public money by Govt now managed to get best value through tender processes.

• Sponsors: people who give to causes with expectation of return

• Donors: people who give to causes with no expectation of return

• People

• Published guidelines, read and apply (phone and email)

• Published guidelines, read and apply (phone and email)

• Published procurement processes – Gov tender website

• Marketing/CSR – phone, email, letter + materials, follow up – meet

• Event collections, website, crowdfunding, direct mail

Grant Givers • Public grant givers: Lottery Funders, Arts Council England, Big Lottery,

Heritage Lottery Fund

• Private grant givers: Trusts and Foundations, large grants/endowments set up to give support through grant giving functions

• Local Government : Commissioning - any spend of public money by Govt now managed to get best value through tender processes.

• Always read the application forms, guidelines and criteria and only apply within these.

• Don’t apply unless you match all criteria • Call in person where necessary, but only where necessary• Use their language• Be clear, they are VERY busy, you are one of thousands of applicants • Be unique, innovative and interesting• Demonstrate and evidence your work, don’t wish or assume • Be professional

Sponsorship • Sponsorship: cash from a business to promote name, brand, products, services with an

expectation of a return (Return on investment ROI, Social ROI). • Sponsorship;

• Marketing budget as part of sales / advertising / promotion• CSR, corporate social responsibility, not necessarily to promote anything but brand • Traditional = brand alignment• Cause related = offers of contribution per spend, direct link to sales/activity

• Why do they do it? • Improving internal culture, loyalty, productivity• Improving life of the community around them• Improving ability to attract the best staff to their organisation• Press profile• Positive reputation for their brand• Greater customer reach

• Who they do it with? – People whose brand/values alignment positively support/reinforce their own eg reaching common

audiences, meeting standards• Where to find them?

• Press profiles and media appearances• Web searches, company profiles, Top 100’s

Donations/Philanthropy

• Donations are ‘gifts’ for which no return is asked or given. • No tax paid on income from donations. • You are restricted as to the amount of benefits you can give the donor e.g. Up to £25-worth of

benefits for a £1,000 donation• HM Revenue & Customs guidance is at www.hmrc.gov.uk

• Why do they do it? • Personal interest, history or connection• Ability (wealth)• Giving history• Links with your organisation or cause

• Who they do it with? • People they trust and like • Causes they love

• Where to find them? • Web searches, media profiles and appearances• Friends, social circles, clubs• Wealthy post-code areas• Volunteers

Where to begin • Writing letters

• Use clear language, be concise• First para: who you are and why you are writing• Second para: what you need and how you’ll use the

support• Third para: what you’ll do next (follow up)• One side of A4 – think of a very busy reader with other

pressures on their mind. • Add images, colour, supporting detail in one

page/leaflet• Authority to sign it. • Get addressee right and tailor personally if possible (I

heard you speak at…, I saw you in… and would like to introduce my project in the hope that…)

• Promise a follow-up, then do it.

Online Fundraising

• Online giving – donate buttons• Apps and in-app buying• Crowdfunding, • Platform giving: Just Giving, Charity Checkout -

% of income to platform• Peer to peer lending – ‘alterative finance’ • Alternative models, social enterprises, CIC’s • Innovation and investments, joint ventures

Don’t forget

• Gift Aid: Registered charities – reclaim 25P for every £1 donated from ‘ tax paying individual’

• Tons of research exists to help eg. giving increases with age, more women than men give but men give larger individual donations, social ‘class’ changes the type of giving,

• Legacies – gifts from Wills, long-lead • Friends schemes, consider resources needed to manage• Competitions, fee paying, consider resources• Professional fundraisers • Fundraising Strategy – formalise your approach within

legislation.

www.literatureworks.org.uk