Since I quit my job as a full time Advocacy Manager in 2010 I’ve been helping advocacy organisations across the country to improve their performance and increase their chances of winning tenders and grant funding.
I quit because I saw the difference that a professional bid writer made to our bid success rate and wanted to do the same for other advocacy services.
Back in 2008 after several funding rejections at Maze Advocacy we were down to our last five months of funding. If we didn’t succeed soon then the service would close. What saved us was bringing in a professional writer. In a matter of hours he transformed the quality of our three remaining bids, improving their clarity, power and persuasiveness while remaining faithful to our vision for the service.
When the bids came back we had won £300,000 in funding.
Even more crucially, I had seen the difference that using a professional bid writer could make to a small advocacy service and realised that I could learn to do the same for others.
So I set out to learn to become an advocacy bid writer. Eventually, in 2010 I launched my own specialist advocacy bid writing and service design service. Since then I’ve worked with some of the largest national and smallest local advocacy organisations on their funding journeys winning over £1,500,000 in grants and tenders.
Success hasn’t been just because of improving their bids though. Sometimes they’ve needed help to improve their services before becoming strong enough to compete. Drawing on my background in advocacy, service design and innovation they’ve been able to improve their casework efficiency, strengthen their accessibility and improve their engagement with hard to reach communities. When their bids have been assessed for innovation and cost-effectiveness this has given them a big advantage.
When you want to win an advocacy contract or apply for a grant I can help you create dynamic, rock solid proposals that stand out and are more likely to get funded.