3 killer tips for winning funds from the donor that you keep getting a no from... Esther Hamilton
I fundraised £8 million in 1 year and led an award-winning charity that reached 1 million people. Want to increase your charity’s income and develop a sustainable strategy? I help charities to win funds & drive change.
I’m Esther Hamilton and in my best fundraising year I raised £8 million. Some of my successes include an £6.7 million DFID grant on the first try, winning a £1 million Comic Relief grant that my charity had been trying for, for 10 years and securing £950k for one charity in four months. I specialise in winning funds that charities have been trying and failing to win. Here are my three killer tips…
Killer tip #1 Make sure your proposal shows you are reaching the most under-served groups.
That doesn’t mean mention them like a buzz word. It means show you know who faces particular challenges and how you will pro-actively reach them and make your services accessible and genuinely inclusive. This is the biggest area where charities with great ideas often fall short in their proposals.
Killer tip #2 Make sure your community has been pro-actively involved in driving the needs assessment and the monitoring and evaluation
- and that you make this clear in the proposal, including how you will be responsive to changes needed if particular groups are not being equitably met.
Killer tip #3 Show that you understand and care about the change the donor is trying to achieve and how it meets a real need you have identified
You know those times when you meet someone who talks about themselves continuously and does not ask any questions about anyone else? Sometimes we love our programmes so much, it can be very tempting to wax lyrical about them. But the most successful proposals are those that show that you understand what the donor is trying to achieve and can evidence the problem and why the solution you are proposing will work and fits in with their strategy.
And most of all, bring your programme alive and show the difference it will make.
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And if you want to learn how I can support your charity to more funds so you can keep doing all that good work, connect via Linked In and get in touch via our contact form.
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