Voluntary Action Lewisham

Principles of Fundraising I

Fundraising is about matching your aspirations and priorities with funders who are seeking to achieve the same objectives.Funders objectives are set out in detail in their guidelines, on their websites and in many of the funding guides.

This matching also provides an opportunity for you to review your objectives and priorities.

Before you pick up a pen (or start typing)

Before deciding to apply for grant funds, you should ask yourself and where relevant your governing body, and staff members the following questions:

Mission: Is this new opportunity within the scope of the organisation's stated mission? Does it fit within the objectives set out in the governing document.

Strategic Plan: Are the proposed programmes/services in keeping with our current strategic plan? Will it help to better meet a stated priority need of the community?

Clientele: Will the services meet the needs of our current target population(s)? If not, do we want to serve a new group of clients?

Staff: Are the current staff members qualified and prepared to provide these services? If not, how much will it cost to either retrain current staff or to hire new staff? How long will this take? Could staff morale seriously suffer if they are unable to meet new performance demands?

Finances: If the organisation does not successfully meet the performance-based outcomes, can it financially risk not being paid for its operational costs?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, fundraisers should seriously consider turning down the opportunity of applying for funds.