Setting up of fundraising group

lily_the_pink

I am in the process with some friends/neighbours of setting up a fundraising group for a local community centre - we may have to also take over the running of the centre at some point but for the moment its function is primarily fundraising.

Would like to pick the brains of everyone out there with experience of this:

a) quickest and easiest way to have some sort of constitution without at this stage necessarily going the whole hog for charity registration. However, want something we can at some point turn into a charity. Need to have something that will let us open a bank account and also give transparancy to the organisation.

b) funding streams we could potentially tap into

c) anyone out there with lottery application experience that has any pointers

rainbowsox

You don't necessarily need a constitution as such, at least initially. It might be helpful to start off by coming up with the aims of your group, then getting some help from your local Voluntary Services Council
http://www.nacvs.org.uk/ on how to progress those into a constitution - they will also be best placed to advise you on the right type of structure your fund raising group should adopt (registered charity, not for profit organisation, unconstituted group etc).
Your group does not have to be formally constituted to apply for funding, although some funders may not wish to fund you if you are not formally constituted, the same way as some may not fund if you are a registered charity.
In terms of sources of funding - alot will depend on where you are in the country, and what the community centre will be used for - if you are looking for a large amount of capital funding then often the BIG lottery fund, European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) or Regeneration Zone (RZ), New Deal for Communities (NDC) are the best sources - alot depends on the end use of the community centre - for example if you are going to provide a raft of child centered activities then maybe Early Years will help.
Generally if you are looking to purchase a building / undertake new build then you would need to be fully constituted and registered as a charity.
I don't have experience of BIG lottery fund, only of little ones, mainly Awards for All - if you contact your local Metropolitan or County Council they generally have an External Funding Department where they either have lottery expertise, or can point you in the direction of where to find it in your area - the local CVSC (see previous link) would also help with this.
I would suggest you look very carefully at the end use of the community centre and how this will be financed and sustained - generally funders are unwilling to commit large sums for capital build unless there is a strong business plan for the sustainability of both premises and services - it's also worth looking carefully at what else is going on in the area, and whether what you envisage for your community centre could be provided in existing premises - in which case you could look at finding smaller pockets of funding to provide the services / projects you want.
Hope that helps (my background is local authority external funding, plus some project management - although am not an expert by any means)
Good luck

rainbowsox

sorry, third para, last sentence of my initial post should read..the same way some may not fund if you are NOT a registered charity.

lily_the_pink

Many thanks - there is a business plan being drawn up -but at the moment until we know what is happening with local governement funding towards the centre it is difficult to progress with any actual funding applications - I just need to get myself up to speed in case we do actually have to sit down and do some funding bids.

Savvy_Sue

Excellent and comprehensive answer from rainbowsox, so the only thing I can add is to look on the Small Biz & Charities board (don't be put off by the fact that you're not a charity, many of the same principles apply to NFP groups!). This post gives links to the FunderFinder software, which IMO can't be beat for those new to writing any kind of funding application!

good luck!

jobbingmusician

Your local CVS will probably help you to develop the business plan, as well! (and may have a copy of Funderfinder which you can use free of charge).

Savvy_Sue

jobbingmusician wrote:

Your local CVS will probably help you to develop the business plan, as well! (and may have a copy of Funderfinder which you can use free of charge).

Some bits of the Funderfinder package are free: notably the bit that helps you write the application and set up a budget. I would download those anyway, and then hope your CVS can help you get access to the part of it which helps you find where you can apply!

BungleGirl

Do you live in a rural village? There are many village halls advisors in rural areas - if you google 'rural community council' and the county you live in you should find either your rural community council (sometimes called 'your county' ACRE - which stands for Action With Communities in Rural England). I work for an ACREand our village halls advisor is great and very passionate about community buildings. This isn't much help if you live in one of the big cities - I don't know if there is an equivalent thing for cities.