We have established a range of successful fundraising courses that have attracted participants from hundreds of charities and NGOS, from all over the world, including some of the largest in the UK. All of our courses have been converted to online learning experiences. They will be relevant for those seeking funds all over the world.
Online Learning: Fundraising Training
During 2020, we converted all of our courses into dynamic online experiences. We launched the one the largest global programmes of live online fundraising training workshops with 26 workshops running from September to December 2020.
For the foreseeable future all of our training programmes will be online. Our 2021 programme will begin in April and will be launched at the end of January 2021.
As competition heats up those precious grants from trusts, we have curated a series of workshops where the learning will be focused on the specific skills of grantseeking, such as ‘how to ask for funds’; ‘how to network with donors’ and ‘how to develop a pipeline’.
You can pick the exact skill you want to learn or improve, and get these new skills in a bite-sized package, with no travel time or costs; and, no need to get to a training room in London, or any other crowded city. All of our workshops have been adapted from our interactive style of in-person training.
Each live workshop will last for 90 minutes and will be limited to 24 participants – to allow for maximum interactivity.
You’ll have opportunities to properly meet and work with your fellow participants – our goal is to minimize passive learning. You’ll also be given comprehensive resource packs and notes for each workshop. In addition to sessions run by Bill Bruty, there will be a wide range of presenters and experts from all over the world, each with varied and significant experience and possessing of a wide range of fundraising skills.
Below is a brief overview of the new online learning modules offered by Fundraising Training:
- Module One: Researching Donors
- Module Two: Proposal Writing
- Module Three: Building Relationships
- Module Four: Planning
Find out more and book your place
The Brutal Facts
A series of events that will challenge our most cherished fundraising ideas
In June 2020, we launched a series of online lectures that will change your thinking about some of our beautiful fundraising theories. In each presentation the facts will be lined up before the established wisdom. If our theories lose, we will explore new thinking based upon the evidence.
Session Two: Fine Margins. Is it stewardship or luck that leads to increased funding?
In this second session of the Brutal Facts series, we poured over 1461 data entries for annual grantmaking by 100 UK trusts from 2004 to 2019. From analysing the patterns within the £5 billion+ of grants, we addressed the following questions:
- How often do Trusts go on spending sprees?
- What types of Trusts are more more likely to dramatically change their giving?
- How can we anticipate these opportunities and be prepared for them?
- Which types of organisation tend to get these increased grants?
- If they increase their giving to you, what next?
The second session in this Brutal Facts series took place as another interactive lecture from 4-5.30pm on Tuesday 17th November 2020
The live online lecture and discussion cost £45.
Skilled Grantseeker Programme
This programme has helped shape best practice in trust fundraising for hundreds of fundraisers from virtually all of the top 100 charities in the UK, from Cancer Research UK to Blind Veterans. This programme equips fundraisers with the essential skills required to raise funds from charitable trusts and other high-value donors. Since 2013, over 300 organisations have put their staff on this programme, which has spawned dozens of ongoing peer support networks – where people continue learning for years after the programme has ended.
The Skilled Grantseeker Programme is available as an online programme commencing again from April 2021. Each participant will be allocated an experienced mentor who will help with the implementation of the learning from the 14 online workshops, covering:
- Understanding Grantmakers
- Setting Research Aims
- Mastering the Research Tools
- Results Based Project Design
- The Art of Applications
- Persuasive Story Telling
- Developing a Prospect Pipeline
- Networking
- Negotiating
- Hunting in Pairs
- Target Setting Formulas
- Relationship Health Checks
- Donor Development Planning
- Developing a Foundation Fundraising Plan
Find out more about the Skilled Grantseeker Programme.
Bid Writing Boot Camp
This intensive experience consists of six online workshops and a personal tutor who will help you to put your learning into practice. It will appeal to people with experience of grantseeking and a desire to embrace new ideas and reach the highest standards in proposal writing. We will equip you to master the most complex of funding proposals and grasp the fundamentals of project design, including Theory of Change and Monitoring and Evaluation.
Find out more about Bid Writing Boot Camp
Financial Skills for Fundraisers
This course is ideal for all grantseekers who have to grapple with understanding funders’ accounts and explain their own with conviction. We will take you gently through the terminology and the numbers. Your understanding of accounts will shift from being a mystery to a powerful fundraising tool. We ran this event in partnership with Moore Kingston Smith on 11th February 2020. We hope to run another event in 201, but, if this is not possible we will convert the training to an online version.