Restoring art of grantsmanship to charities
30th October 2007, 2:23 pm
Press Release from Turner PR:
THINK Consulting Solutions - the UK’s leading voluntary sector consultancy - has launched a new intelligence and analysis unit.
THINK Intelligence aims to restore the discipline of ‘grantsmanship’ - the craft and skill of identifying, researching and building relationships with and applying to grant funders as part of an integrated policy covering trusts, foundations, Lottery bodies, statutory funders at all levels of UK government, and the European Union.
Tony Elischer, managing director of THINK Consulting Solutions, says: “It is rare for the discipline of grantsmanship to be separately identified within an organisation’s fundraising strategy and portfolio of activities. It is more common for charities to spread their grant winning responsibilities among individual departments according to which sources of funding they apply for.
“It is often the case that one of the largest sources of grant income - statutory bodies - is dealt with entirely by service delivery or operational staff and it is not even seen as a legitimate function of fundraising.”
The problem with this approach, Elischer says, is that it leads to duplication of work and lowers the quality of grant application writing as there is not a single focus of expertise in the charity.
“Organisations that do not approach their grant funding in a holistic and integrated way, allowing their fundraising team to lead in this area, are missing a trick,” Elischer says.
“At the very heart of a successful and sustained grant programme lies the creation, nurturing and sustenance of a variety of personal relationships between individuals and the grantmaking bodies - just the sort of relationships that fundraisers strive to build with other types of donor but which are so often lacking from the grant fundraising.”
THINK Consulting Solutions has appointed Kate Green, formerly head of fundraising partnerships at Oxfam, as director of THINK Intelligence. She takes up her position on at the beginning of November. Green will be able to call on four regular freelance researchers as well as a roster of ad hoc freelance bid writers.
Green says: Green says: “The new intelligence and analysis service for fundraisers is an exciting development for the sector as a whole. I believe that we can supply charities with information and help them apply that knowledge to their strategic decision making processes.
“I am particularly pleased to be able to develop the grantsmanship service as an integrated part of THINK Intelligence and be able to offer charities and other organisations the knowledge and support for the applications to grant funders that enables an integrated approach to fundraising from all income sources.
“It’s not just about having the knowledge but being able to make it work effectively for you to maximise your income generating potential.”
THINK Intelligence also aims to provide a far higher level of analysis than just the bare statistics that are usually the result of research commissioned by charity fundraisers from research consultants.
“When charities commission a piece of research, what they receive is hardly ever put into context by the researcher or is supplied with any recommendations of how to interpret or use it,” says Elischer.
“Most fundraisers are just not trained in research skills so not enough are turning their research into strategic plans and we intend to do something about that. On the other hand, some fundraisers are basing the strategic plans on the wrong type of research and we intend to do something about that as well.”
All of THINK Consulting Solutions’ research projects will now come under the banner of THINK Intelligence - including the World Markets Report, last published in March this year. And all THINK’s consultants will be available for ’secondment’ to THINK Intelligence’s projects.