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 […]
Guest Post: 3 Steps to Showing Value for Money in Your Advocacy Tender
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 […]
7 Ways to Show Funders the Crying Need for your Advocacy Service (Part 2)
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 […]
What Saville Row Tailors Can Teach Us About Bid Writing
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 […]
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7 Ways to Show Funders the Crying Need for your Advocacy Service (Part 1)
“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 […]
The Secret to Convincing Funders of the Need for your Advocacy Service
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 […]
The Only Way You Should Ever Begin Your Advocacy Funding Bid
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 […]
Twelve tried and tested ways to improve your advocacy organisation’s funding prospects (via eight Advocacy Leaders)
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 […]
Top 5 Reasons Why Advocacy Funding Bids Fail (and how to make sure yours doesn’t)
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 […]
6 Hot Tips to Ease the Pain of Bid Writing
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 […]
The A Team Guide to Being 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 […]
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