The GRCC Funding Event
GRCC were pleased to host our Funding Event at the Pavillion in Cheltenham in what turned out to be a great day!
The event was put on so that VCS organisations could come along and get advice from funders and learn vital funding skills. There were multiple workshops throughout the day as well as a Funder’s Panel for any questions the audience had.
The day began with a welcome and introduction from Angela Gilbert, GRCC’s VCS Support Services Manager Cheltenham, as she gave an overview of the national funding picture. The day had a fast pace to it as attendees moved onto the first of four workshop sessions of the day.
The first workshop’s covered how to improve your applications with Ciaran Murphy from the National Lottery Community Fund, the power of using good data with Inform Gloucestershire and Embracing Community Fundraising with Angela Gilbert. During all the workshops there was the option of getting one-to-one funding advice in our Funding Surgeries.
The workshops lasted for 45 minutes each and we swiftly moved into the second set of workshops. We had Hannah Gorf, from Gloucestershire County Council and Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, who delivered ‘Understanding Commissioning’ and the other workshop was ‘Effective consultation to support your applications’ with Kate Baugh from GRCC.
There was then a short pause for lunch before launching into the Funder’s Panel where several Funder’s including the National Lottery Community Fund, Barnwood Trust, Gloucestershire Disability Fund, Enovert Community Fund and the Summerfield Trust. The audience was able to ask questions and there were some interesting and useful tips given out. One particular interesting topic was about whether an organisation needed a website or social media. Funder’s said it wouldn’t be a disadvantage if they didn’t but it can often be very helpful if they do.
After the Funder’s Panel we moved into the afternoon workshops with a Starting from Scratch session from Kate Baugh for those who needed tips on how to start their fundraising journey as well as a session from Ruth Davey from Look-Again who gave an interactive session on why images and videos can tell your story in an application.
In the final workshops, we had Barrie Wyatt from nVision Consulting giving a quick guide to writing measurable outcomes and a workshop from Angela Gilbert about Finding Funding. Attendees had one last opportunity to speak to funder’s before the day finished as well.
GRCC would like to thank everyone who attended and hope that it was useful for your funding journey.