Recognising your full fundraising potential
Care and Relief for the Young
"It was great to have someone in David Saint who understood the Christian aspect of what we do. He enabled us to get a clear view of how we see ourselves and having his outsider view added to that. The fundraising workshop was very engaging and it was encouraging to be able to come out with a plan that a third party, who knows about these things, believes is doable."
CHRIS TAIT, CEO, CARE AND RELIEF FOR THE YOUNG
Background:
Care and Relief for the Young (CRY) is a charity based in Southampton, which aims to rescue and restore children and young people broken by poverty, oppression, exclusion and abuse. CRY sets up projects in some of the poorest nations in the world and provides training and support for local people and churches to run them for long-term sustainability. Its income has been derived predominantly from charity shops, and CEO Chris Tait was keen to put in place a more broad based fundraising strategy. Having been unable to attend our Stewardship training day, he asked Action Planning down to Southampton.
Brief:
We were asked to run a training workshop for the senior leadership team and trustees of CRY, to help them develop a focused and realistic fundraising strategy that would increase the revenue available to carry out more projects around the world.
Process:
David Saint spent two days with CRY in Southampton. On the first day he carried out one-to-one interviews with the CEO, founder, members of the senior leadership team and one of the trustees, who is involved in marketing the charity. This enabled David to glean a clear impression of the charity as a whole and the individual perceptions of these key personnel. He used this insight to develop a fundraising workshop, which he delivered on day two. The workshop revealed delegates’ individual thoughts about CRY and brought in David’s objective perceptions, giving delegates a clearer perspective of the position of the charity now and where they want to take it. David then explained the fundamental building blocks of a fundraising strategy, how to build a case for support and how to go about asking for donations. With the theory in place, the group then set their minds to defining a realistic fundraising target and sources of revenue.
Outcome:
Delegates emerged from the workshop confident of the charity’s potential to raise £200,000 in 2019 – four times their initial target of £50,000 - to match the income currently generated from the charity shops. There was a clear idea about the most efficient uses of time for different fundraising activities in terms of ROI, and a determination to invest in grant applications and a stronger communications function. The output from the workshop was sufficient to gain an agreement in principle from the Trustees to put together a detailed, costed plan.
Consultant's insight:
CRY was wise to want to diversify its income base, beyond its already successful shops programme. Although the charity currently has little in-house expertise, there was an open-mindedness and eagerness to explore new concepts, and it was exciting to see these enthusiastically embraced. It will be necessary to invest in staff with specialist fundraising skills to underpin this enthusiasm, but CRY is in a good place and will be able to reap the benefits of this investment.