Funding
Funding
Evolution offers a free funding advice service to all voluntary and community sector organisations based in Darlington. We aim to raise awareness of the many available funding opportunities and we work to increase the chances of organisations securing funding.
Fundraising can be a daunting task regardless of whether the amount you require is a couple of hundred or tens of thousands o f pounds. It can take a lot of time to secure funds and the process can involve a variety of fundraising methods including grants, fundraising events and activities, sponsorship, trading and procurement.
Margaret Ferguson, Funding Advisor, can help identify the most appropriate sources of funding for your organisation and/or project. She can also provide the necessary guidance and support to access, apply and report on a wide range of funding issues.
Meetings can be held here at our offices or we can visit you at your organisation premises/project location. Funding advice sessions can be conducted over the telephone or by email but Margaret prefers to meet in person. Margaret can help organisations with the following:
Plan for long-term funding requirements
Producing fundraising plans and strategies
Preparing project and organisation budgets ensuring all costs are included
Sourcing suitable grants
Assessing and developing other potential means of supplementing income including gifts in kind
Identifying and developing trading opportunities
Looking at ways to work with other organisations to deliver complementary projects or similar projects
Identifying appropriate monitoring and evaluation systems
Margaret can also assist organisations in completing applications forms before they are submitted – this service is extremely popular as organisations find it useful for a Funding Adviser – who is external and independent - to review the budget, wording and/or layout of a bid before it is sent to a funder.
We recognise that ongoing support is often essential and that funding is a continuous process. As such there is no limit as to the amount of times that an organisation can access funding advice support at eVOLution. We provide funding surgeries in association with some of the more common grant makers in the region. In the past these have included County Durham Foundation, Children in Need, Big Lottery Fund and Sherburn House.
Regular funding bulletins are produced with information about the latest sources of grants available. These can be downloaded from
http://www.evolutiondarlington.com/funding/funding-bulletins/
For advice or support on any area of funding advice please contact Margaret Ferguson on 01325 266888 or email margaret.ferguson@evolutiondarlington.com