We build knowledge
– for free. About what? – Fundraising. Why? – Because without a secure income you, as small charities, cannot plan, improve or even guarantee you will be around to help those who depend upon you.
We help you build your skills
in applying for funds, running events and appeals, learning how to look after your donations and how to communicate properly with your donors. We throw in the odd international expert to inspire you and event for you to take part in too. Take a look closer...
booklet ‘What We Do’
(1.4 MB PDF)
Toolkit Based Training
We don’t want to spend all day telling you what to do to build skills in your organisation. We want to build skills! That is why we have invested in building courses that build your knowledge, confidence and ability to fundraise. We pack in a good dose of inspiration too.
We know that one of the main reasons you cannot invest in building skills in your charities is lack of funds. We don’t want to ask you to spend donations on paying for a course, which is why we make it free. It’s our donation to you. We also know it is expensive for you to travel, so we donate a travel allowance for everyone attending from outside of London.
We run up to 40 fundraising training sessions a year for individuals from 100% not for profit organisations with an annual raised voluntary income of less than £1.5 million. Take a look at what is on offer and sign up for your place today.
Securing Major Gifts from Individuals
Major Donor fundraising is the fastest growing area of new income for charities in the UK and internationally. These two days of training equip delegates with the key information, resources and skills needed to identify and secure major individual donors.
This course covers the first 6 steps of an 8 step major donor fundraising process:
-identify
-research
-plan
-engage
-ask
-close
‘Absolute gold dust – taught with passion and experience – very exciting’ – Delegate
Following this course we would strongly recommend that all delegates attend our stewardship course, which covers the last steps of major donor fundraising. This course goes beyond the ‘expected thanks’ and teaches delegates how to keep their valuable donors near and dear to them, highly increasing the likelihood of future gifts.
Stewardship
This is a chance for delegates to get creative with how they thank and maintain a relationship with donors. Delegates leave the session understanding the vital role of Stewardship in increasing long term support and with a lot of ideas as teams fight it out for the prize awarded for the most creative Stewardship idea!
Find the next course and sign up here
Successful Events
This session equips delegates with the knowledge and tools to deliver an efficient and effective fundraising event that ensures that the event not only raises funds but will raise awareness and bring new supporters and donors into their organisation. Delegates return to their organisations with their project book started, ready to implement their plan for their next event.
Find the next course and sign up here.
Thinking about an Appeal?
Are you thinking about running an appeal? This is an important reality check for an organisation contemplating running an appeal, from the early stages when organisations must be honest and ask, ‘Is this the right time?’, through to the details of planning, strategy, management and evaluation of the process. Delegates are able to learn from Pauline’s first hand experience as National Campaign Manager for the NSPCC’s Full Stop appeal.
‘I just wanted to thank you both for a great course yesterday – probably the best I’ve ever been on in terms of practical as well as theoretical support. Inspired, invigorated (and healthily traumatised by the reality of it all), I struck while the iron was hot and got started on rethinking/overhauling our campaign strategy when I got in last night!! Anyway, thank you so much again for yesterday and for making me feel so welcome’
Rachael Grime, Chief Executive, Derbyshire Community Foundation.
Find the next course and sign up here
Building your Core Case for Support
This two day course gives delegates a chance to think and develop an inspiring internal document that creates a uniform message about why they are important as an organisation, how they make a difference, and what people can do to support or get involved. Within this interactive session delegates prepare and deliver presentations to the rest of the group, help each other to identify their USP, and leave with their Case for Support structure in place, ready to complete when they return to their organisations.
Find the next course and sign up here
Funding from Trusts and Foundations
With an estimated 8,800 independent trusts and foundations in the UK giving £2 billion in grants each year they are a prime source of funding for Not-for-profit organisations. This session helps delegates prepare concise, well-researched and tailored proposals to boost their success rate with trusts and foundations.
‘Just wanted to say thanks for the benefit of your considerable expertise and knowledge last Friday, it really got me thinking, and for a one day training (which I often find next to useless) it was invaluable.’
Vivienne Hayes, Chief Executive, Women’s Resource Centre
Find the next course and sign up here.
Health & Safety
We know how important it is for you to have staff with accredited Health and Safety in the workplace certificates, so we run two courses a year for you to train team members for free. Sign up to make the most of this fantastic opportunity!
Find the next course and sign up here.
Managing Volunteers
This course has been designed to help your organisation to maximise the potential of its groups of volunteers. We will take a look at how to recruit new volunteers, how to retain, value and motivate existing volunteers and how to create a range of activities that suit the lifestyle needs of different volunteers. We will look at the impact of an ageing population on volunteering and at how to value volunteers’ involvement and commitment.
Find the next course and sign up here.
Marketing & Communications
This course is a chance for delegates to understand how the mission and values of your organisation inform your brand, what constitutes this brand and ways of ensuring that your brand is maintained in all your marketing and communications activity. The course covers online and offline communication tools and will offer guidance on how to get the best out of the ever-evolving web.
Find the next course and sign up here.
Drop in Clinic
The FSI drop in clinics are a chance for small charities to access the knowledge of experienced fundraising experts and to discuss and receive advice on any issue relevant to them, free of charge*. The sessions run monthly and are with FSI CEO, Pauline Broomhead and Director, Kim Sutton.
The FSI Forum – Sharing the Best
One of the first things we realised about the great skill building resources available to the sector was that the best speakers were predominantly only accessed by the largest charities; those who could afford to send staff to the leading international conferences in fundraising.
With this insight, The annual FSI Forum was developed as a way for the most influential movers and shakers in the world of philanthropy to showcase their ideas and experiences to organisations that would never normally afford to attend conferences with speakers of this calibre.
With thanks to Credit Suisse, our Forum partners, we have brought you three Forums since we started, each year getting better and better. To find out more about who spoke, what was said and what you could have learnt if you were there, take a look at the presentations and transcripts of the days here and register your interest for your free early bird place for next year here.
*All 250 free places are allocated on a first come first serve basis to individuals from 100% Not-for-profit organisations with an annual raised voluntary income of less than £1.5 million. Two places per organisation and a waiting list thereafter.
The Workshop
Over the last 2 years we have been listening closely to what you need and to what surveys of the sectors skills have been telling us. What we have learnt is that to deliver effective fundraising, you need a number of other skill sets in place – business planning, marketing, IT, HR, legal knowledge. The FSI has created the Workshop for back house functions that, when in place, make your life a great deal easier.
With thanks to Legal & General our superb Workshop partners, the event takes place in April each year to give you a chance to chat to experts and take away toolkits to get you started. Take a look at some of the speakers last year and find out what is lined up for April 2010 here.
*All 80 free places are allocated on a first come first serve basis to individuals from 100% Not-for-profit organisations with an annual raised voluntary income of less than £1.5 million. One place per organisation and a waiting list thereafter.
FUNDRAISING EVENTS
We are proud to be building your skills in fundraising, but we know that in many cases it can take some time for funds to materialise after your hard work. That is why each year we take the burden from you and organise events you can jump on board with minimal effort and see funds come in more quickly.
This year saw the second FSI Challenge in the Derbyshire Peak District – a 4km or 10km walk or run for the whole family. No entrance fee, just funds raised by your participants for your charities. Take a look at the purple dressing up items on show over the last two years here and make sure you are registered and recruiting participants for 2010 – find out more here
In 2009, we also launched the first ever online/offline car draw for small charities. The car draw raised an incredible £73,000 for 413 small charities and produced one lucky winner of a Fiat 500! Take a look and find out who was involved here.
FSI CONSULTANCY
For all charities, small and large, we understand that when you need extra hands on support to develop or take a leap forward you are faced with choices: put your plans on hold until resources are available; do as much as you can with your current resources; make a long term investment in new resources or buy-in temporary external support in the form of consultancy.
If you are a large charity that wants to access our services, or a small charity who would like us to help with more than we are able to under our free services then the FSI consultancy can provide affordable bespoke support that is individual to the needs of your organisation.
The Team
Our passionate team have more than 40 years of Third Sector experience between them; with specific expertise and an excellent track record in every type of fundraising method, project and event management, research, and organisation building – strategic and operational.
Cost
Staying central to our charitable ethos we deliver consultancy on a sliding scale of charges – offering discounts, gifted as a donation, to all charities with a turnover of less than £20 million. The biggest discounts are given to charities within our less than £1.5 million turnover beneficiary group. An estimate for project delivery will be calculated following a discussion of your needs. As we are a not for profit organisation our clients have the added benefit of knowing all funds go straight back into helping small charities.
Please get in touch with Kim Sutton, Director, for an informal friendly chat if you would like to find out how we can help you, and take a look at some of the great organisations the Consultancy has been supporting over the last year here.
T: 020 7637 2264
E: kimsutton@thefsi.org
