Funding

Funding fundamentals from the Finance Hub

There is a lot more to successful fundraising than writing funding applications. While bringing in funds for your organisation may seem to be the most obvious place to start, you have a duty to show that your organisation is able to receive and manage funds properly.

In order to approach a funder, a voluntary and community group needs to be properly established with a formal constitution and a bank account. You need to think about whether the constitution you adopt is adequate for your needs: What specific things do you need in order to cover all the activities you will be doing? The clearer you are about what it is you want to achieve (your aims) and how you are going to achieve them (your objectives), the easier it will become to identify how much support you're going to need.

This may involve thinking about whether you should register as a charity, set up a company (limited by guarantee or social enterprise) or whether being a relatively informal association will best meet your needs. You will need to decide which forms of funding or finance are right for your organisation such as:

* applying for grants
* raising funds through activities
* setting up some form of trading activity
* tendering for contracts to deliver services.

Generating income for your organisation, whether through grants or trading, requires forward planning: How will you sustain your organisation and activities in the future?

This is a lot to consider but modest plans only need modest beginnings and there is help and advice available. Many highly successful voluntary organisations started round a kitchen table, with just the commitment of a few people and a good idea.

Legal structures

Voluntary and community groups need to make sure that the legal structure they adopt will enable them to carry out their activities and provide an appropriate framework within which to work. This overview provides a starting point to consider the choice of legal structures available to voluntary and community groups.

Guide to Fundraising (722kb)

Downloadable 38 page .pdf (722kb) produced for the Finance Hub by NCVO Sustainable Funding Project. The document introduces fundraising, and covers fundraising from the public, from businesses and from local communities. It doesn't look at applying for grants.

Tools for Fundraising (491 KB, .pdf)

Downloadable 33 page .pdf (492kb) produced for the Finance Hub by NCVO Sustainable Funding Project. It includes advice, checklists and a series of exercises groups and advisers can use to work through the various methods of fundraising.

When you feel you are ready to start completing funding applications you may wish to use the 'Funder Finder' programme:

The Funder Finder Programme is designed to help groups search for suitable funders for their project ideas. There are some 3,000 different funders on this searchable database. Funder Finder is updated every 6 months to ensure the information given is correct.

Voluntary Action Waltham Forest is licensed to hold this very helpful programme and welcome Waltham Forest groups to come along and utilize it to help identify suitable funders. Sessions are by appointment and a search takes around 40 minutes. A staff member will be available to support you in the use of the programme.

Your list of most suitable funders can be printed out for you in best match or alphabetical order and/or can be emailed to you, saving you a great deal of research time.

To find out more or to book an appointment please call Mutmahim on

0208 521 0377 Ext 224

Email: mutmahim@voluntaryaction-wf.org.uk

VAWF has their own Bid Writing Support Service

This service provides the following:

• Advice and Consultancy on all funders
  of voluntary and community sector groups
• One-to-one support

The 'Bid Writing Support Service' is also equipped with a resources designed so that groups make use of it and:

• Have access to IT equipment
• Learn how to write a first class funding application
• Find it easier to research making use of a specialised library
• Use the internet as a fundraising / research tool
• Submit a bid with all chances of being successful

The Bid Writing Support Service is available through bookings only.

Please contact Mutmahim Roaf, Funding Advice Officer at:

Voluntary Action Waltham Forest, Upper Ground Floor, Churchill Business Centre,
6 Church Hill, Walthamstow, London E17 3RY

Tel: 0208 521 0377 x224
Email: mutmahim@voluntaryaction-wf.org.uk