Community Wales

I’ve been asked so many times to help different charities, churches, and third-sector (volunteer) groups to help them with co-design, project development and fundraising that I thought I better launch a website to help with demand!

It might seem strange in my first post on my professional consultancy website that I’m trying to PUT YOU OFF paying for my services. But this is very important.

The best things in life are free, and whenever charities get in touch, my first role is to visit them for a free initial consultation and offer some free advice. To be honest, in our initial meeting, most are not ready for professional support. They are at that early stage where some experience and guidance are all they need. And that’s always free (provided you do the hard work)!

Besides, there is SO MUCH free help, advice and support on offer for the third sector in Wales – organisations should simply NEVER engage my services WHEN THEY DON’T NEED TO!

I intend to write some blogs over the next few months showcasing some of the very best FREE help available out there!

But let’s start today with a quick shout-out to Funding Wales! This funding search platform was created by Third Sector Support Wales. You can use this powerful search tool to find which funding is available suitable for your charity, community group or social enterprise – it’s easy to use and it IS ALWAYS FREE. I use it all the time with the charities I serve as a Trustee.

So, to be honest, you won’t very often need to pay someone to find grants for you. However, grant availability is very challenged at present and it may sometimes be advisable to hire a more experienced fundraiser to navigate the process – and if you’re in that place right now that’s where I come in.

Then again, I’ve seen loads of FREE TRAINING for new fundraisers recently. I’ll post about any new courses whenever I see them. I’ve directed charity staff to these free courses before, and as a result, they’ve started bringing in regular small local grants for their charities. They only need me now for the BIGGER fundraising challenges!

Not only that, but your national or local voluntary alliances (e.g. GAVO, TVA, WCVA) can offer huge amounts of free support if you need help with governance, fundraising and grants, registering as a charity, recruiting volunteers and trustees, DBS, payroll and SO MUCH MORE.

So, whether it’s fundraising, project planning/development or anything else third-sector related – before you spend precious charity cash on consultancy, get all the free help you can. There is LOADS available in Wales!

By all means, call me for a chat about your project. I’m happy to point you in the right direction to FREE help. And if the day comes when you need some paid professional support, then call again and I hope we can work out an affordable plan.