What your charity commission entry says about you

When was the last time you looked at your charity commission entry? When assessing charities for funding, it is one of the first things I (and many other funders and assessors like me) do. Not your carefully crafted funding bid nor your lovely website. I put your charity number in the purple charity search box to see what comes up.

What does it tell me? I get lots of useful information like when you registered and how many Trustees you have. But crucially for anyone applying for funding, two sections can reveal significant issues:

1. Activities in the charity overview – this is the box where you get to say what you do. A brief summary to give me a good introduction to your work and purpose. Sometimes it says “no information recorded” and sometimes it is out of date or written in archaic language. If so, you are missing a trick – this is a free marketing space, a concise summary in your own words for all funders to see.
    
2. Financial history – and more especially the warning triangle and red text that means you failed to report on time. This sets off alarm bells in my head about your financial management. Funders usually expect a timely report for any funding given and they will be very worried that you won’t comply with their requirements. If this is you, don’t let it happen again. Get your reports and accounts in on time. In the meantime, you will need to proactively address this issue for the five years it will show up in your entry. Be prepared to be questioned about it.  Be upfront and explain how it happened and what you have done to prevent it recurring.

All charities should know the importance of the message your charity commission entry is giving out and control this where you can. Why not make it a habit to check your entry?

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You are not unique - sorry

It is crucial that workers in the charity sector are committed to their cause. They should be motivated by the work they do and the difference it makes. Lets face it – it is likely to be demanding work and not usually well paid.

It is also important that charities try to stand out when writing their funding bids. Applying for grants is an increasingly competitive process.

The problem is that these two things often combine in funding bids with the result that just how special the charity is, is overplayed. I read lots of applications that say:

“we are the only ....”

“our service is unique”

“there is no one else offering this support”

“our unique approach”

And because I read lots of applications, my response may often be: “no, you’re not – I visited another charity doing similar work just last month”; or, “you are the 5^th one using this approach that I have read today”. Without backing up your claim, you have caused me to question not just this but all your assertions.

The trick is to stand out but avoid over-claiming. Rather than saying you are unique, back it up with some detail. You can still stand out with the quality of your work and the outcomes you achieve.

A message to givers – be more magpie

New research on magpie behaviour has shown they are not attracted to shiny things, as we like to believe, but instead they try to avoid them. It set me thinking about the lure of the shiny new innovative projects that can appeal to funders and philanthropists giving money to charities.

Charities do great work that changes lives and givers big and small want to support them to do this. But behind that great work is lots of far less interesting things that have to happen. Someone needs to do the payroll; insurance needs to be renewed; minibuses taken for their MOTs; risk assessments and plans written; databases need to be maintained.

Charities all say that it is hard to raise money for their core costs yet many grants exclude them. Full cost recovery and compacts try to address this but often charities have to find ways to package their overheads into their project costs to get them covered.  Or they spend precious time away from the frontline to gather unrestricted funding from events and sales.

As our understanding of magpies has changed, maybe we should learn from this and be more magpie. Rather than just funding the attractive work that gives us those shiny case studies. Perhaps we should find reward in funding what the charity wants and needs. So why is that more funders and philanthropists don’t willingly fund the photocopier service contract, the admin worker or the office cleaner when they might be dull but are so vital?

Writing successful funding bids: Tell me something I don’t know

Before you launch into your funding bid, stop and ask yourself what it is this funder needs to know to convince them to support you.

Why will this help? Well, fitting everything you want to say into strict word count limits is always a challenge. It can save you valuable space if you focus on the facts and evidence your chosen funder needs. And as someone who reads hundreds of bids, I can wholeheartedly agree that less is almost always more. A clear, concise bid which tells me exactly what I need to know and how that fits with my funding priorities is just what I want.

One consideration is whether you are applying to a specialist or a generalist funder.

If you are applying to a specialist funder then you can assume a greater level of knowledge in that area. For example, if the funder has already stated that their priority is homeless people, you don’t need to tell them the latest government statistics on homelessness and the poor outcomes for homeless people. You can assume that they get it already – that’s why they are looking to fund this area of work. Instead, tell them why your homelessness project is the one they should fund out of all the others they are considering.

Be specific, tell them about the need in your area; who else is delivering services and how you work with them; why you use your particular model; what is different about your approach; the experience and expertise you have; what results you get...

If they are a more general funder, perhaps a family charitable trust, then you may need to use your words to explain your cause and why it is important. In this situation, don’t make assumptions. Take time to explain the key background facts and figures surrounding your issue and how people are affected before you go into the specifics about you.

If you give general information to specialists, you risk wasting their time and missing the opportunity to give them the depth of detail they want. If you go into specifics with people who have more general knowledge, they may not understand what you do. In both situations:  get it right and you have a better chance of being successful.