Together to Thrive

The Together to Thrive Fund aims to upskill a new generation of fundraisers, unlocking more funding for Norfolk VCSE organisations.

The Fund will support small to medium sized Norfolk-based charities (with turnovers of between £100,000 and £1,000,000 as evidenced through your most recent annual accounts) by providing bursaries for fundraising training and mentoring for a member of staff. The training/mentoring has two separate focuses and your application should in the first instance choose which you wish to pursue. Consideration will, however, be given to charities wishing to pursue both:

Option 1 – fundraising through charitable trusts, foundations and Lottery. This will be delivered by Felton Fundraising and Appeals

Option 2 – fundraising through individual and business support. This will be delivered by Creativity Unbound

You can read further details about the two options here.

The support will typically be delivered over a 6-9 month period, although shorter, targeted modules may also be provided.

Applicant organisations may/may not already employ fundraising personnel in house and the funding can be used to train and mentor inexperienced fundraisers or to enhance an experienced fundraiser’s skills.

The aim is to support charities to develop their skills and capacity over time rather than to help them respond to an immediate funding gap.

What funding is available?

The cost of the training and mentoring package is £3,000 and bursaries of up to £2,000 are provided to successful applicants. The recipient charity will need to match this with the balance from their own resources.

In this funding round the aim is to support between four and six charities split equally between Felton Fundraising and Creativity Unbound. A further funding round is likely to be held in 2025.

Who can apply?

This opportunity is only open to Norfolk based registered charities and CIO’s. You must have been registered with the Charity Commission for at least 12 months and have already submitted your first annual return/accounts.

Priority will be given to groups with a relatively new fundraiser who has been in post for less than two years.

Other requirements

The application must identify the post that will benefit from the training and demonstrate that the charity has a clear line management structure to support the person in their fundraising role.
The postholder’s role must include between 15 to 21 hours per week being devoted to fundraising.
The application must demonstrate that the trustee board is supportive of the application and the progression of fundraising within the charity.
In the case of training offered by Creativity Unbound, the organisation must be able to commit a marketing budget of approximately 10% of the fundraising target to support the fundraiser’s work.
In the case of training offered by Creativity Unbound, it is also expected that the organisation will have a database (on or offline) of existing supporters and beneficiaries.

Decision making and next steps

Following the initial application (see link to the application form below) selected applicants may be invited to meet the panel to discuss their requirements from the training/mentoring package. At this point the panel will be able to consider whether support from both organisations might be appropriate. We would expect successful applicants to be ready to start the training/mentoring from March/April 2025.

Maintaining the Fund

The Fund has been established through initial donations and upon the charity reaching a certain level of fundraising-uplift (to be agreed prior to the award of a grant), the recipient organisation will be encouraged to repay the original bursary either in part or in full, allowing further bursaries to be awarded to other charities.