Services
Fundraising
Let's face it... all charities need money in order to keep doing amazing stuff each year. Competing for that £1 in someone's pocket or bidding for that six-figure, multi-year tender takes a tremendous amount of hard work and perseverance.
In order to be great at fundraising, you need two have things: Expertise & Capacity
Expertise
You need to know how to find and qualify the best funding sources and understand how best to approach these.
Capacity
You need the time and resources to persevere until you achieve success.
If you do not have both of these things then you need a third which is a budget to appoint someone like Apostle to partner with you.
Apostle are experts in helping you grow and diversify your income streams as well as helping you win those all-important funding awards. Over the last decade, we've raised millions of pounds for charities as well as supporting them to effectively plan well for the future.
“The difference that we have seen in charity income since we started to work with Andrew has been quite remarkable. In less than 1 year he has transformed our ability to attract donations and sponsors. Through his introduction of a range of techniques; varying from simple process to innovation, we are now receiving substantially more income from a much wider range of sources. Personality-wise, I have rarely worked with someone who has such a pleasant manner, is as highly knowledgeable about his subject, and who is so keen to deliver an exceptional service.”
Chris Shaw Trustee - Off The Record (South East Hampshire)
How can we help?
Fundraising strategy
Every organisation needs a strategy. What are your key strategic aims and objectives for the coming years? What services will you be providing in the future? How are you going to fund these? All of these type of questions should be at the critical heart of every organisation.
Allow us to work with you to construct a robust fundraising strategy for your organisation by focusing on how you are going to diversify and grow your income streams & channels, how you will grow your supporter base and identify the required steps in order to achieve your financial targets.
We've worked with charities and public sector organisations in creating ambitious but realistically achievable fundraising strategies.
Bid writing
With over a decade of competitive bidding experience we are experts in writing applications to a range of funders from local £500 grant schemes to multi-million-pound partner consortium bids- we've done them all. We've written and secured awards from the European Commission, Ministry of Defence, Big Lottery, Sport England, British Council, and a variety of grant making Trust & Foundations such as The Leche Trust, The Sobell Foundation and The Almond Trust.
We can write or review bids, applications or tenders depending on your experience, capacity or staffing needs. We plan, research, prepare and submit bids to the highest quality.
Prospect research
Working against a clearly defined brief, we will complete desk research using the leading online search engines to find the right funders for your project and produce funder recommendation reports.
Capital Appeals
Apostle over the last 12 years has developed a specialism in working on large capital appeals ranging £100k- £5.5m. We thoroughly enjoy the process of working with clients for the longer term and working on projects from initial concept to cutting the red tape.
How can we help?
Strategy
Understanding if you are ready for a large appeal and how you are going to achieve success is vital. You need to establish a robust strategy involving fundraising, communications and stakeholders- all things we are experts in.
Feasibility Studies
Involved in the strategic process is to understand if the fundraising target is viable to be achieved? There is no point venturing out on a £2m capital appeal if we consider there are not the income options available to get you to your target. Let us completed a thorough fundraising feasibility study for you analysing potential prospects including major donors, companies, events and grant-making Trust and how/ when we should approach these.
Appeals Committees
You cannot do this alone. Most capital appeals will require income from people of influence and affulence. We can help you identify and assemble Appeal Committees who will proactively seek out supporters using a peer to peer giving methodology.
Prospecting / qualifying / applying
Planning and preparing even before you make your first ask is absolutely vital. To raise substantial amounts of money you need a central case of support, perhaps a campaign brochure, an income gift table and many other tools. Only then can we start to instigate the traditional private and public phases of your capital appeal.
Graphic Design
To support either the fundraising function or your charity development we are experts in creating new graphic design outputs including:
• New logos or logo redesign.
• Marketing or fundraising collateral including leaflets, brochures and posters.
• Website design.
• Video editing.
