Workshop 4: Demystifying Fundraising

Neighbourhood as Incubator participants at Kitty’s Laundrette

Before Christmas, Neighbourhood as Incubator participants attended the fourth workshop in our project, which focused on ‘fundraising.’ The session aimed to demystify the topic while providing useful tips and tricks to help participants explore various fundraising pathways and opportunities.

The workshop was facilitated by Grace Harrison, Organisational Lead of Kitty’s Laundrette — a co-operative community launderette and social space nestled in the heart of our neighbourhood. Participants heard about the fundraising journey of the launderette before it opened its doors in 2016 - getting to grips with fundraising has its challenges, from initially knowing where to ‘look’ and how to answer questions, to putting a budget together and evaluating project outcomes. Participants learnt about this, as well as the different types of grants to apply for— such as revenue and capital grants, project-specific grants, and how the concept of crowdfunding works.

Grace explained also how raising money from the public can support with specific projects, collaborative bid writing as well as reading through all of the documentation before you put pen to paper! The key takeaway from the workshop was that central to any fundraising bid is the ability to ‘tell a story well’ - an art in itself! 

“Most of us said funding felt really daunting, but Grace made it feel so accessible - she gave loads of handy hints and hacks.

It was a really good session!” - Hilary.

Looking ahead to the next three months of our grassroots project, we’ve a busy programme of events, workshops, and meet-ups in store, including visiting inspiring enterprising people and businesses, participants trialling their ideas, brushing up on presentation skills, and attending networking events.