Articles

Why Advocacy is So Damn Fundable

By Joe Roberson August 28, 2012

Advocacy Funding Bag of Grants Money — Advocacy services deserve more

Advocacy is a truly terrific way to help people. It tackles the root causes of people’s problems in a fresh and innovative way. It involves its users at every step of the process, drives system-wide change and is delivered by a deeply committed workforce.

But it’s not getting the number of grants it deserves. Even though it can reduce service dependency and save local authorities a tonne of money, funders don’t yet get its value.

Let’s see what we can do about changing that.

Are you with me?

Great, let’s do it. [Read more…] about Why Advocacy is So Damn Fundable

Guest Post: 3 Steps to Showing Value for Money in Your Advocacy Tender

By Joe Roberson August 20, 2012

Value for Money film poster — Who is the star of your value for money advocacy tender show?

Advocacy contracts are becoming tighter and increasingly price driven. Whether you agree with price driven commissioning or not you’ve got to show Commissioners how you offer value for money.

You have to convince them that they are getting a good deal from you; in terms of both quality and cost.

You can do this more easily by understanding their definition of value and then showing that your outcomes offer this value.

Here’s how. [Read more…] about Guest Post: 3 Steps to Showing Value for Money in Your Advocacy Tender

7 Ways to Show Funders the Crying Need for your Advocacy Service (Part 2)

By Joe Roberson August 13, 2012

Sad doggy asking for advocacy funding — “If you don’t fund my advocacy project then I’m going to cry” said Rover

Hey, it’s good to see you again. Welcome to Part 2 of a two part series on how to coolly and clearly convince funders of the crying need for your advocacy service. The series takes you through the different types of evidence you need and shows you how to use them to make your bid wail desperately for funding. Without being a drama queen.

In Part 1 we learnt how to hang onto the reigns of our good idea until we’ve got our evidence clear, use facts and figures to build funder trust and use quotes to bring your facts to life. Read on to learn four more ways. [Read more…] about 7 Ways to Show Funders the Crying Need for your Advocacy Service (Part 2)

What Saville Row Tailors Can Teach Us About Bid Writing

By Joe Roberson July 30, 2012

Advocacy tailoring — Tailor your bid like the pros by outlining first

Bid writing can be a laborious process. Even for experienced professionals sustaining the energy and focus needed to churn out quality responses to 10 or 20 questions at a time is a challenge.

How can you speed it up? How can you make it easier?

There’s one traditional tailors trick that can make a critical difference. Without it you’re wasting your time. [Read more…] about What Saville Row Tailors Can Teach Us About Bid Writing

7 Ways to Show Funders the Crying Need for your Advocacy Service (Part 1)

By Joe Roberson July 23, 2012

How to Get a Grant for Your Advocacy Project — “Please will you fund my advocacy project?”

“Pick me, my project is desperately needed!” is the cry of every good funding bid.

In fact it’s the minimum that it needs to say to stand any chance of success. If it’s not saying it then you’re better off starting again or going home. If your bid’s not crying its heart out then your funder-to-hopefully-be won’t be persuaded to help you.

Now I don’t mean it’s got to be indignant or have a hissy fit. No one likes a drama queen. Your bid needs to be cool, clear and convincing in its desperation. It’s got to wail with the genuine pain and anguish of the people you’re trying to help.

That way your funders will hear their cries too.

To cry louder, stronger and more convincingly you need to [Read more…] about 7 Ways to Show Funders the Crying Need for your Advocacy Service (Part 1)

The Secret to Convincing Funders of the Need for your Advocacy Service

By Joe Roberson July 16, 2012

You understand the need for advocacy. You deal with it everyday. You know it like the back of your hand and it’s why you do this job. So you should be able to tell funders about it really clearly and convincingly. Right?

So why is poor communication of need one of the top 5 reasons for rejection?

It’s because when you work with the need every day it’s easy to end up desensitised to it. And if you’re desensitised then it’s harder to communicate the nuances, subtleties and real life impact of it in a convincing way. This happens to everybody and it’s inevitable.

Your bid needn’t suffer though. There is a way to overcome it but it’s still a bit of a secret. [Read more…] about The Secret to Convincing Funders of the Need for your Advocacy Service

The Only Way You Should Ever Begin Your Advocacy Funding Bid

By Joe Roberson July 9, 2012

Open your bid with an explosion — Boom! You’ve got to start your bid with a bang.

What’s the most important part of your advocacy funding bid? What’s the one thing that will shape how your bid’s assessor rates the rest of it?

It’s how you begin it.

Because even in the world of bid writing first impressions matter most. A brilliant first impression casts the rest of your bid in a brilliant light. Whereas a dull opening condemns your reader to a duller experience, no matter how much your bid shines later on.

This massively affects your bid’s chances of being successful. [Read more…] about The Only Way You Should Ever Begin Your Advocacy Funding Bid

Twelve tried and tested ways to improve your advocacy organisation’s funding prospects (via eight Advocacy Leaders)

By Joe Roberson July 2, 2012

Advocacy Funding Prospects pic — Improve your funding prospects without having to go panning down the creek.

Maintaining your advocacy service and growing its funding is hard work.

Tenders are tougher than ever. Grant programmes become more competitive every month. To be successful there’s a lot of things to get right, and a lot of things you can get wrong.

But within the advocacy community there’s a lot of experience and good advice available on how to improve your funding prospects and make sure your hard work yields results. We’ve gathered some of the best of it here in the first of our ‘Ask the Community’ articles. We asked eight independent advocacy leaders:

“What’s your best advice for other advocacy organisations wanting to maintain and grow their funding?”

Here’s what they said… [Read more…] about Twelve tried and tested ways to improve your advocacy organisation’s funding prospects (via eight Advocacy Leaders)

Top 5 Reasons Why Advocacy Funding Bids Fail (and how to make sure yours doesn’t)

By Joe Roberson June 28, 2012

I’m sure you’ve experienced that crushing moment of rejection. Where you discover that the bid you pinned your last funding hopes on and worked so hard for has been turned down.

At worst you’ll be left facing the loss of a vital service. At best a roadblock to your plans to help more marginalised people be heard.

But there are some really achievable things you can do to reduce your chances of rejection. Based on the Big Lottery’s most common reasons for rejecting proposals, here’s what you can do to avoid becoming just another failure statistic. [Read more…] about Top 5 Reasons Why Advocacy Funding Bids Fail (and how to make sure yours doesn’t)

6 Hot Tips to Ease the Pain of Bid Writing

By Joe Roberson June 12, 2012

The pain of advocacy bid writing — Does bid writing make you feel like this?

You’ve got a fundraising strategy.

You’ve got good evidence that your project is needed and a list of funders to apply to.

You’ve checked their guidelines and you know that you fit them. You know your project and your approach. You know what questions you’ll need to answer.

You’re ready to go. All that stands between you and a world-beating bid is a blank page.

This is the hard part, where the pain starts.

But it doesn’t have to be so hard. And it can be less painful. There’s a pretty simple process you can go through that makes bid writing easier, helps you feel like you know what you’re doing, and saves you time. Here’s how. [Read more…] about 6 Hot Tips to Ease the Pain of Bid Writing

The A Team Guide to Being an Advocate

By Joe Roberson June 12, 2012

The A (Advocate) Team — Maybe you can hire… an Advocate

You may not have noticed it before but the A Team bear a surprising resemblance to a team of advocates. There’s a good reason for this. If you remember, they started out in 1972 before advocates really existed and the advocacy movement had got going. They hung around for a long time, doing a lot of good work, improving hundreds of people’s lives and inspiring thousands of viewers throughout the 1980s.

So it’s no coincidence that by the time they went off air in 1987 the advocacy movement had tentatively spread its wings and taken flight. It was on the move. Fair to say we owe a lot of our roots to Hannibal and the boys.

Let’s examine in more detail just how much the A Team inspired advocacy as we know it… [Read more…] about The A Team Guide to Being an Advocate