Funding know-how, tips, information

• Funding know-how, tips, information
• Funding articles, podcasts, videos
• Funding alerts and sources
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Know-how, tips, information 

BBC funding tips for schools   For starters, why not try Barney's (Blue Peter) top ten fundraising tips for primary schools.

Funding Buddies   This is a useful guide for small to medium-sized voluntary sector organisations. 

How to use Facebook to fundraise   If your VCS organisation need to fundraise and it has a facebook page – here’s a little 'how to' guide from KnowHowNonProfit.

A new tool from the Charities Commission   A huge amount of advice, information, bespoke training and even pro bono advice has become available to the voluntary sector from charity sector umbrella bodies. A new tool is now available to voluntary sector organisations on the Charity Commission’s website to help them find partner umbrella and infrastructure groups that offer useful bespoke advice and support.  Here is more information about the tool and here are the partner umbrella organisations listed so far. 

Measuring well-being   Funders may often ask applicants for evidence of how extra-curricular programmes have raised the well-being of children and young people. The nef (the New Economics Foundation) has produced this useful, practical guide to help you to measure well-being in a systematic way. It's free and is based on research and information from the voluntary sector. (Please note nef's notice about Creative Commons usage of this document, which is on their website.)

The sustainable sun tool: steps to sustainability  Here's a cheerful little tool to help voluntary organisations think about their sustainability and how to achieve it in a systematic way.

Writing a bid? Stop! Read this blog first   Here are some excellent insights in a blog posted by the NCVO Funding Team, which could make all the difference to you. 

Funding know-how: advice to VCS organisations thinking of approaching businesses   Corporate social responsibility on the part of businesses brings substantial amounts into the voluntary sector. There are some thoughtful pointers in this Guardian Voluntary Sector blog about how voluntary sector organisations need to approach businesses in a way that brings positive results – for both parties. 

Funding know-how: Businesses want to see well developed business plans    Potential funders and sponsors of any organisation, be it a VCS organisation, a social enterprises or even a school, will want to see an up-to-date business plan in a funding bids. Here is a useful article with some practical pointers in it about how to start getting a solid business plan down on paper. The article offers a short list of questions as a starting point for a fuller, more detailed plan. And once you have the basics down, here’s some advice about writing your business plan. 

If only it grew on trees   A Learning Exchange Bulletin article about funding sources and know-how (15 October 2012)

BIG's Guide to Outcomes: Getting Funding and Planning Successful Projects    Excellent support from the BIG Lottery Fund for voluntary sector organisations, schools and local authorities around applying successfully for grants and funding. Learn more about how to articulate the connection between identifying the need for your project, the activity you offer to meet that need, and the outcomes you identify.

Ineligible applications: the wasted work of the voluntary sector   As part of its Great Giving Campaign, the Directory of Social Change has produced this document which looks at why so many applications for funding by the voluntary sector fall at the first hurdle; that is, they fail to meet funders’ basic eligibility criteria. The number that do is startling. It’s a two-way street, however. VCS organisations may not be researching the funders’ criteria deeply enough, but also, on the funder side, information may not always be clear and can be open to interpretation. It offers recommendations for how the funders can improve their side of the process and for how voluntary sector organisations can improve their chances of success. Here is more information about the DSC Great Giving Campaign 

Five common funding application mistakes   A list from IdeasTap showing the five most common mistakes that young people make when they apply for funding. All the tips they give to counteract the mistakes could apply to any application for funding.

Applying for funding: a useful project budget template  This is a useful template from IdeasTap.com, aimed at young people making funding applications and but widely useful. 

Sustainable funding: tips from the NCVO   While the outlook is still uncertain in many ways, the voluntary sector can take heart from this encouraging report from Olof Williamson, NCVO's senior sustainable funding officer. The NCVO’s UK civil society almanac data shows over half of income in the voluntary sector during 2009-2010 has been generated through contracts and through selling products and services. He does point out the downside, but offers some sound tips to voluntary sector organisations about sustaining funding in a turbulent world.

How to get a ‘yes’: excellent funding application advice   With a great deal of experience in grant making and fund raising, Lisa Parker, CEO of the Nationwide Foundation, offers advice about what to bear in mind if you want your application to have the best chance of success.

Strategic approaches to sustainable funding for the voluntary sector   The NCVO’s Sustainable Funding Beacons programme is equipping the voluntary sector infrastructure organisations with information, skills, knowledge and resources that can help them to assist their frontline voluntary sector members to approach funding in a strategic and sustainable manner. 

How2Fundraise.org   Ideas, know-how, templates, news about fundraising and funding.  

Directory of Social Change: Fundraising tips   This list of articles covers a huge range of funding, fundraising and sustainability issues, know-how and expertise, which would be helpful to schools and voluntary and community sector organisations.  

Citing evidence of impact   When writing bids for funding, it is useful to draw on credible research to demonstrate the impacts of extra-curricular activities on young people's learning outcomes and behaviour. Here are a few documents that may be useful.

• School improvement and extra-curricular activities    The schools featured in this report, Twelve outstanding secondary schools - Excelling against the odds, were judged outstanding by Ofsted in 2009. A common characteristic was their rich extra-curricular offers. (Please, however, note the caveat on Ofsted’s website about checking their most recent Ofsted report.) 
• The Impact of Study Support    This is the report about a longitudinal study into the impact of participation in extra-curricular activities on secondary school students’ academic attainment, attitudes and school attendance. The key findings on page 7 are useful. (MacBeth, J; Kirwan, T; Myers, M; McCall, J; Smith, I; McKay, E of University of Strathclyde; and Sharp, C; Bhabra, S of NFER; Weindling, D and Pocklington, K of Create Consultants.) 
• After-school Alliance Research   This document, Afterschool Programs: Making a Difference in America's Communities by Improving Academic Achievement, Keeping Kids Safe and Helping Working Families outlines the impacts of extra-curricular activities that have been observed in the United States.

Sports Funding Jargon Buster: A handy tip sheet     These extremely useful tips to bear in mind when writing bids for sports funding are available on the Funding4Sport website.

Show me the money!   Advice from The Clubbers' Guide to finding finding for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) clubs by Elizabeth Lister. You need to log into the STEM website to see this page.

Funding: how to develop a strategy and vision   This document has some useful tips about how important it is for schools, in a competitive and more financially austere environment to develop a clear funding strategy and vision.

Guaranteed units of funding document   Information on the Dedicated Schools Grant allocations for 2011-12 by local authority.

Partners with each other - or private providers   That's the advice to charities from the New Philanthropic Capital think tank - that is, if they want commissioners to see them as offering attractive services. The think tank expects funding in the third sector to drop by between £3.2bn and £5.1bn and the gap is too big for trusts and foundations, public or philanthropic funding to fill. To get through this, charities must look beyond their normal support base for new alliances.  

School finance: how to stay out of the red   An article on the rocky financial road ahead with one school offering up its finances for an analysis into how to survive it.

NTRL Funding Events   A large range of classes that concentrate on accessing and managing funding, including bespoke lessons and regular regional events throughout the year.

Online Procurement for Educational Needs   Looking to cut costs? Save money on procurement fees by ordering educational goods and services from suppliers online.

Good Practice in Project Design & Bid Writing Skills   (European Funding SmartShop) - learn how to design a good project that will attract funding.

Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration   SOFII's site contains examples of successful fundraising campaigns from all sorts of organisations, as well as 'how to' tutorial articles.

Social impact bonds and social value   Social Impact Bonds aim innovatively at providing a new way to invest in social outcomes. They are being developed in the UK by the Young Foundation and Social Finance. The innovation aims to address ‘misaligned incentives in social policy'; for example, schools being given inadequate incentives to offer services that prevent health problems. Three categories of approach are being explored, which involve 'some borrowing with repayment linked to success in achieving social impacts'.

Finding local authority tenders   This helpful page on the Family Learning Network site offers you information on contract procurement through local authorities.

Subscribe to goverment funding website   Have access to £2.3 billion worth of local, regional, national and European sources; find out about funding rounds before they open; search by type of grant (small grants, loans, contracts); receive emails on new and updated grants.

Fundraising Expectations    This is research produced by the Guardian, in association with the Institute of Fundraising. It focuses on the challenges that fundraising professional face, as well as on the on levels of job satisfaction among fundraisers, recruitment and retention issues within the profession and how sales, marketing and business development professionals from outside the sector see it as a possible career choice.

Sustainable funding   Another helpful page on the Family Learning Network website offering tips on how to develop a sustainable funding strategy, keeping the money coming in and managing it. There are links to guidance on commissioning and procurement, corporate fundraising and sponsorship, social media tools, event fundraising, individual giving, social enterprise, writing skills, partnership skills and much more.

Making it through the wobble   Neil Irwin, Member Services Manager at the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action has timely fundraising advice for people developing extended services. His advice is applicable across the UK.

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Funding articles, podcasts, videos

Write a winning funding bid   This is a free sample course in the NCVO StudyZone.

Where might £2bn less be spent?   (21 September) Schools Secretary Ed Balls and his officials have indicated the kinds of savings they think schools could make. But are these realistic?  Gary Eason, BBC News website education editor, totted up the figures back in 2009.

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