We're proudly sponsored by these amazing businesses who allow us to cover the biggest and most regular expenses we simply can't escape paying for!
Grant funding has been suggested a few times to us, and we thank everyone who's mentioned that.
You're all right, we definitely fit the bill for quite a few of the available grants, and eligibility (even without a charity number) would not be a concern. It's the conventional route you'd expect a non-profit to take.
Our hurdle is time and human resources.
We're all still volunteers with day jobs, families and other commitments, and we're already a little way past comfortable on our attention ratio, just keeping the project ticking over as it is.
None of us are experienced in writing bids or dealing with funders and their formalities, we're aware that wording is key, and even for any of us to begin to learn about all that stuff and compose something that will stand out, takes time in itself. In addition, grants tend to be one-off or short term, so we'd have to reapply for those year on year in order to sustain them.
Notably, grant funders are reluctant to provide support for schemes which are already established with one mission in mind, they prefer an organisation to present a new modus operandi, or an innovation, or a plan for a large expenditure, a building extension, forming a new help group, that sort of thing. We'd struggle to compete with other applicants on that basis alone.
Instead, we favour a sponsorship funding model because there is minimal administration for both parties, and as sponsors tend to give to a non-profit that they themselves have chosen through personal validation, as opposed to having to select one based on an appealing bid, we can keep focussing our resources on doing exactly what we're doing, and be confident of their lasting support.
Thank you once again to all our sponsors. Please show them your love!
If you'd give up a takeaway a month to boast your support for our invaluable project, please drop us a line
You can find all the details and the links to our sponsors' websites here:
www.freeitstafford.org/funding
