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Funding

All tenant and resident groups need funds to survive. We have seven key suggestions to either start a new group or help keep it running.

You can:

Apply to Nottingham City Homes

To do this you need to show that what you hope to achieve fits in with the aims of Nottingham City Homes and meets its aims and objectives. Showing that you are doing good work will not automatically get you a grant. Download an application form below and information booklet or contact the Tenant and Leaseholder Involvement Team on 0115 915 7380.

• Start-up/running costs
• One of event grant

Apply for a government grant

To do this you need to show that what you hope to achieve fits in with the aims of the particular department and meets its aims and objectives. Showing that you are doing good work will not automatically get you a grant.

Go to the government portal for grants to voluntary and community groups from local authorities, regional government, european sources and other sources.

Apply to grant giving bodies

Over 9,000 charitable trusts and foundations give out nearly £2 billion countrywide in grants. Applying can involve a lot of hard work but very fruitful in the end. You need to:

• Identify a suitable trust
• Find out as much as you can about them
• Try to get them interested in your work, finding an aspect of your work that they will want to fund
• Persuade them to say yes!
• Making sure your application is relevant to the particular trust
• Ask for an appropriate amount of money

Trusts receive more applications than they can support – but not enough good ones. The key to success is making your request relevant and appropriate. Sending standard letters to a large number of trusts does not work! 

Have a look at the list of other potential funders.

Charge a membership subscription

If your group's constitution allows you to, you could use this relatively common way to raise a small amount of money. Before you do this, though, you need to be sure the time and effort involved is worth the amount of money collected. You may also want to have different fees for some groups, such as pensioners and unemployed people.

Hold fundraising activities

There are loads of thing you can do such as:

• Auction donated goods and services
• Hold bingo evenings
• Hold competitions with entry fee
• Have craft fairs / jumble sales
• Have discos with entry fee
• Arrange social events

Remember that you need a licence to hold some events such as lotteries and raffles. You will also need to look into the health and safety aspect and insurance for other events. Such events need to be well organised and run smoothly.

Run a sponsored event

These include walks, cycles rides and fun runs and can bring in large amounts of money. They also take a lot of organisation and need clear records to be kept on the amount of sponsorship money promised and whether this has been handed in. Health and safety is also important.

Fundraising can be a daunting task but there is a lot of fundraising information, advice, and training available from local and national organisations, to support groups.

Good luck with your fundraising!