Where am I going wrong? Where can I get support?

[quote]
[Our project partner isn't operationally geared up to work with us in effective time-frames and seem to think that the problem is something I can change; there seems to be some resistance to doing things 'by the book' many are used to being autonomous with funds etc. and aren't liking the control the trustess operate. ]

I think you should address this issue at an early stage. Good fundraising is about developing relationships with funders. Yes you want the first gift but you should look to develop the relationship to encourage repeat, and hopefully, larger donations. This means good quality reporting back - how was their money spent? What difference did it make to people's lives? etc. etc.

If your partners aren't geared upto your time-frame and are putting all the emphasis on you it doesn't seem to me that they'll be very motivated to work with you on this. I'd advise you to try to get some understanding with them on their responsibilities and active involvement at the start.

Good luck!

John Trevelyan
Head of Statutory, Trusts & Major Donors
Sense.

Hi Susan
I have to agree with Jason - setting up fundraising from scratch takes time - I have always assumed a 6 month bedding in time for any new fundraiser, and that's if they are joining an established fundraising set up.
I completely understand your frustrations re projects, as I have faced the same challenges. I was lucky enough to have a sympathetic line manager who has been willing to advocate on my behalf to the Senior Management Team, and make them understand that in order to raise restricted funding, we need very detailed project information, including accurate budgets, projected outcomes and solid monitoring and evaluation systems. We now use a very simple project proposal form which asks front line workers a set of simple questions to check that they have thought a propsed project out thoroughly. This then goes onto a team made up of interested parties from across the organisation to be either agreed and put into budget or sent back for more thought. When I joined, there didnt seem to be any projects availabelf or funding apps, but setting up this process (whcih has taken over a year!) has revelaed that there are plenty of potential new projects, its just that workers werent entirely sure who to take them to, and as they didnt understand fundraising, didnt undertsand that they needed to be bringing up new projects perhaps as much as 18 months in advance.
Not sure if this is any use to you, but happy to have a chat about project development if it woudl help?
Sue :)

Hi Susan,

Well its good to know that you've got your own trustees seeing things in a sensible, realistic way, sounds like you just need to put the same issues across to the partner organisation... you say they don't want to see things done "by the book" which indicates their after something fairly instant... well, if such instant results were an everyday fundraising reality we'd all be working from a different book wouldn't we?! :o)

As for case studies, not so sure myself, perhaps there's someone else reading this thread with some ideas they could pop down?

But personally I'd reckon that few donors are going to make substantial pledges without knowing a few specifics as to what their money is going to achieve. After all, going back to basics, a donors motivation is usually that they want to see some kind of change happen in the world, you've got to be the one to convince them that your organisation can facilitate that change for them.

Best wishes

Jason

Hi Jason

Thanks so much for the reply, it's good to get some feedback and support.

I think the trustees are now feeling somewhat like I am. We don't know if we can effectively resolve the situation without our key project partner, who brings most funding applications to our attention, provides volunteers and pays for my salary ( as long as I make success of raising money), truely appreciating 'how it works'.

Our project partner isn't operationally geared up to work with us in effective time-frames and seem to think that the problem is something I can change; there seems to be some resistance to doing things 'by the book' many are used to being autonomous with funds etc. and aren't liking the control the trustess operate. Unless we can find a way to work together, without undue pressure on either party, I really don't know how to do this.

We have a big meeting this week - I hope this is going to resolve things one way or another.

Do you know of any good case studies I could research of organisations that fundraise using general outcomes with say past examples e.g in our case, overseas community development projects as opposed to single specific lcoation and situation appeals, or will this simply not work or take too long?

Thanks again

Susan

Hi Susan,

It sounds as though your under a lot of pressure to deliver to unrealistic targets there, do they honestly expect £50k to be coming in from scratch without being able to present potential funders with outcomes as to what the funding will achieve?

I think you need to point out to them that at present the target your looking at is impossible, due to the funding proposals not being in place as yet and due to the realistic timetables that one has to work by in seeking that kind of money from trust sources.

For your role to work, I think you need to put it to them that they have to work in collaboration with you to develop good, budgeted project proposals with a good set of outcomes that you can put to funders. They're the ones who should know how they want to achieve the organisations aims, as fundraiser your role is to take the proposals and turn them into something presentable to funders, not be the one dreaming up the projects on your own as it were...

Then you are in a position to assess your chances of sourcing funding from different sources and come up with a strategy and timetable for trying to gain that support, a process that you've got to be realistic with.

This will all take time and patience, the trustees have to accept that if they want to see development and expansion they've got to think through what their doing and expect to see that the organisation has to speculate to accumulate, break even in the first year if lucky and go forth from there...

If they can't take that on board, then their not really ready to be utilising your professional services... you seem to have been doing everything right, especially as you're doing it alone, from an under developed starting point and with trustees that don't really seem to be being realistic... :o)

Good luck though, I've been in a similar kind of situation to yours before so you have my sympathy, hope all works out :o)