As part of an innovative new scheme funded by Lewisham Council, LEAN is hosting a fundraiser that can help groups and artists operating in Lewisham with a free programme of fundraising support for projects incorporating the arts.
Please scroll down to find answers to the following questions:
What is it and who is eligible for support?
The Lewisham Fundraising Development Programme is a new initiative, funded for 3 years by Lewisham Council, which provides free fundraising support for arts, culture, sports and community groups operating in the borough. If you’re a freelancer working in the arts in Lewisham, you’re also eligible to access the free support.
The programme is delivered through a partnership between 4 organisations, each hosting a specialist fundraiser with a specific focus:
- Lewisham Education Arts Network (LEAN)
- Lewisham Local – Karen Jeffreys (Equalities)
- Age UK Lewisham and Southwark – Leanne Wenham (Cold spots)
- Platform Cricket – Kieran Connolly (Sports)
What kind of support is available?
- In particular, the Arts Fundraising Development Manager can offer:
- 1hr advice calls, if you want to chat through your fundraising needs and have a sounding board or some advice from us. This could be very broad like “I know we need to explore new types of fundraising but I don’t know where to start…” or more targeted like “I want to improve how we’re telling donors about our impact, can we talk it through?”
- Shorter 30minute advice calls, if you’ve got a smaller, specific question you want answering e.g. “Do you have any top tips for running a fundraising event?” or “Can you help me understand what this application question is really asking?”
- Reviewing funding bids you’re working on (please make sure to give us a bit of time on this so not the day before your deadline!)
- Helping with collaborative bids – if there are multiple organisations coming together on a joint bid, we can give your feedback or help you think about partnership working
We want to be responsive to the needs of organisations in the borough so please do reach out with suggestions of the kind of support you would like if it’s not covered above.
How do I access it?
To keep up to date with news of all the support and opportunities available across the programme, join LEAN’s network and sign up to the shared fundraising development manager newsletter here.
To access 1-1s or application reviews please complete an initial expression of interest form and one of the fundraising development managers will get back to you.
A brochure outlining the current offer from all the fundraising development managers can be accessed here. This outlines a range of free and light touch support managed by the other fundraisers, including the popular Friday Fundraising Club run by Lewisham Local.
Resources
October 2023, LEAN in partnership with the Albany ran a workshop exploring Arts Council England Project and Developing Your Creative Practice Grants. We were delighted to be joined by Jessica Antwi-Boasiako (Relationship Manager: Combined Arts – CYP). Jessica’s presentation is here:
ALBANY_ACE-NLPG and DYCP_11 OCT 2023 (003)
November 2023, Lindsay Harrod and LEAN ran a Developing Your Fundraising Strategy workshop. You can find the presentation which includes useful links here:
Developing A Fundraising Strategy November Workshop Slides
