Cashing In

Fundraising in a sustainable way is a must for every community project hoping for long-term impact. Lucinda van der Hart asks Faithworks development manager Virginia Luckett how to do so

I want to fundraise so as to sustain my project into the future. Where do I start?
Financial resources can come from a number of places and it is best practice and common sense to set up and maintain ‘a mixed economy’ of support. This way, if one stream of funding dries up, you are not left high and dry! Look to create a package of support drawn from several of the following areas:

• Grants from charitable trusts
• Contracts, either statutory or other
• Statutory grants
• Corporate responsibility programmes
• Enterprise, either commercial or social
• Partnerships or working collaboratively
• Community fundraising events
• ‘In Kind’ gifts
• Donations from individuals of money, time and expertise
• Prayer

Tip: All the areas listed above (bar the final one) can be quantified in monetary terms, or understood as ‘matched funding’. When you are writing a funding bid, it may be helpful to list them as financial resources that you already have to put towards your project.

What makes a good fundraiser?
Fundraising is an art and a science. It takes vision, creativity, commitment and nerves of steel. Even the best fundraisers fail; failure somehow needs to become your friend. As in the words of Rudyard Kipling’s If: you need to meet with ‘triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same’.
I would also say entrepreneurial flair, in the truest understanding of the term, is an important quality. Entrepreneurs can articulate a vision persuasively and inspire people to release resources to help meet that vision. This God-given talent can be chanelled into funding applications, partnership negotiations and in inspiring donors to give generously.

What about the rest of the team – how do they play a part in sustainable fundraising?
Equally important in the sustainability package are the complementary skills of solid project management, attention to detail and team building. For your project to work well in the long term, you need the creativity and persuasiveness of an entrepreneur, the ‘best practice’ and systems of a project manager and the people skills of a team builder.

Are there places a Christian project shouldn’t go for financial support?
This is tricky and complex question! Many churches around the UK can fund all their church running costs, local social action, overseas mission support and charitable giving through the generosity of their congregations. This is one route to long-term sustainability. However, if you are seeking additional financial support from outside the church, the initial question to ask is: Are you prepared to be flexible about what you are seeking to achieve?

Charitable trusts and local authorities have their own restrictions on what they can fund. Trusts are bound by their own memorandum and articles or trust deeds, meaning they are not legally allowed (by the Charity Commission) to give money to anything that falls outside their objectives, however prizewinning the project! Similarly, local authorities or statutory funders have their own targets and community strategies to roll out – their funding from central Government depends on their success in this. Try putting yourself in the shoes of the funder you are making an application to, asking: how can our proposed work help our potential funder meet what they are trying to achieve, and make a significant contribution to what we are trying to achieve? If we use this approach to gaining financial support it follows that:

• There is no point in sending begging letters to as many charities you can without researching properly what they are trying to fund
• Researching possible supporters before you approach them is essential
• Sometimes you may need to consider different ways of developing and delivering your work so you can achieve some of your own and your funders’ aims simultaneously.

Tip: The Directory of Grant Making Trusts 2007/08 is a comprehensive, updated source of information on 2,500 grant making trusts. Entries include concise contact details, what is and what is not funded, type and range of grants made, and examples of recent grants. Published by The Directory of Social Change / £99.00 / ISBN 978 1 903991 79 4 (Also available as a CD-ROM.)

So should those seeking funding for a project be willing to release control of the direction of their work?
Working collaboratively with funders through the model described above is risky: you must decide whether you are willing to take this risk. The reality is that if you secure outside funding, you will on some level lose total ‘control’ of the work. You must now be accountable about your work to your funder as well as your church family – and your funder will want proof that your work is meeting their objectives. This applies to Christian trusts too!

Monitoring and evaluation of your work will be needed (this is where your project managers come in). Also Christian organisations, whether linked to a church or not, must have a clear understanding of their own identity in Christ. They need an ability to articulate the ethos of their work as based on the Christian faith, and the values and behaviours that arise from that faith. Clarity in this area will help you to resist the temptation to alter your vision and mission so much that over time it becomes unrecognisable – all for the sake of possible funding streams. It’s a narrow channel to be skillfully navigated. How you speak about your work is an important part of this.

What sort of language should we be using to talk about Christian community projects to potential funders?
If we take the model of St. Paul, who used the existing culture and religious practice to point people towards Jesus, we also need to become skillful with how we speak about our work to different audiences. The grant guidelines and criteria, or the tender opportunity, will be written in the jargon of the potential funder. We need to understand their jargon and learn to reflect back, interpreting our work into their language. For example a ‘pastoral visiting scheme’ could also be described as ‘a befriending service for the housebound’.

How important is it to consider where funding money has come from?
Each Christian project or organisation needs to wrestle with their theological and ethical position on this. Remember that no one can guarantee that any particular source of money has not in some way been ‘tainted by the sin of the world’ at some point in its economic journey. Whatever the decision you take, the key factor is what you do with the funding. Ultimately, you will be accountable regarding how you spent your funds, not only to the funder, but also to God.

I noticed you included prayer on your fundraiser’s list (above). Tell me more…

I cannot emphasise enough how important faith-filled prayer is when it comes to sustaining our work long term. It’s a battlefield out there – especially when we are looking to sustain Kingdom growth.

Over the last two years Faithworks has been doing some active learning research in partnership with the Yorkshire and Humber Churches Regional Commission, with 20 Christian ‘presences’ in the region looking at ‘what makes an effective Christian presence’. Prayer has, perhaps unsurprisingly, been identified as key to sustaining both the work and the people involved. We need to pray for opportunities to secure resources, for guidance about who to approach, for good partnership relationships, for generous giving and for wise stewardship. We also need to pray for those directly involved in fundraising – it really is hard work.

• For more information on sustainable funding and how to apply to charitable trusts effectively, see www.faithworks.info/sustainablefunding
• For an inspiring read on fundraising, try The Porcupine Principle, by Jonathan Farnhill, (The Directory of Social Change/ £12.95 / ISBN: 9781903991893) ‘Packed with wise comments and shrewd observations, this will help to demystify the world of fundraising and persuade you that anyone can get involved. It is not a how-to-guide that will show you what to do, but rather a pocket book that will inspire you to try’, says Anne Danerolle, who works for the Community Church in Hull, and has raised over £3 million for her church and partnering charities.

Virginia Luckett was previously development manager for the Faithworks movement