Spring to Action Ltd

New dates added - Selling to the Public Sector

Does you business or organisation want to sell to the public sector or improve their success rate?  A range of workshops have been organised including:

Introduction to Selling to the Public Sector - 14th November, 9.15am - 12.30pm

Completing a PQQ and ITT: Essential documents for tendering - 14th November, 1.15pm - 5.00pm

Writing a tender with impact - 6th December, 9.15am - 12.30pm

Advanced Tendering Skills: Winning the Bid - 6th December, 1.15am - 5.00pm

 

• All seminars will be held at Highpoint Conference Centre, 165 Glenfield Road, Leicester LE3 6DJ.
• Joining instructions will be sent to you once we have received the completed and Download Booking form - Selling to the Public Sector.

Get in touch with kate.cowan@springtoaction.co.uk or call 07921 992 194 for more information.

Enter Creme of Nature's Award

The shampoo manufacturers Creme of Nature are offering a £10,000 award to the most deserving African-Caribbean community organisation that works with women. Closing deadline is 28th February 2010.

You'll need to show:

• Evidence of need
• Communty benefit
• Your track record and expenditure
• How the £10,000 prize will make an 'outstanding' difference

For more information contact Creme of Nature on 0845 4500 581 or email them.  Good luck!

Early Notice: Bid Writing for Beginners, Leicester

After such a strong demand for our popular Bid Writing for Beginners 2 hour workshop, we're in the process of arranging to bring it to Leicester.  Pop 11th January in your diary now or email us to be the first to receive the full details and the booking form.

Ideal for people wanting to learn more about how to bid for tenders and contracts, it helps a range of organisations including social enterprises, small companies and third sector organisations to sell themselves to potential funders.

More information to follow shortly...

Sources of Sports Funding - Leicestershire

At our recent Bid Writing for Beginners workshops, there has been an interest in specific sports funding schemes, for organisations working with young people and communities across Derbyshire and Leicestershire.

North West Leicestershire District Council has its own comprehensive list of funding schemes, many of which will apply out of the area too.  There are also a couple of schemes which will apply to other projects and ideas for community work.

Some key tips for coming up with a killer idea for funding:

• Talk to the end users of your service.  What are the problems they are facing?  The project must solve a genuine problem, but occassionally we all make assumptions about our areas of work and it's good practice to continue to refer to the end users or customers of your service.
• Keep it simple. Over-complicated projects are difficult to manage and difficult to explain in funding applications.
• Write your explaination of your project in a long paragraph.  Then go back over it and re-write it until you can explain the project's purpose in one simple sentence that anyone can understand.
• Write a mini project plan.  Carefully plan the journey of the user step by step and think through any budgetary or other resources your ideas will have.  Are there any ways to reduce costs or make the project even better at this stage?

What else do you do to help you come up with a killer idea? 

Sports and Arts Funding for Community Sector

Spring has continued to deliver the ever-popular Bid Writing for Beginners workshop, this time to the Arts team at Derby City Council. With a focus on delivery of projects to help fund events and training for dance, sport and singing the workshop was handily held at Pride Park, who have their own learning centre for young people.

Some funding options for people working in sports and the arts could include:

• The Heritage Lottery - could you deliver a project to help people explore their heritage, through the arts?  Maximum funding available is up to £50,00 per project, depending on the funding stream.
• The Austin Hope and Pilkington Trust - Grants available are between £1,000 to £10,000 and their focus changes each year - for 2009 its community and disability.
• Awards for All - For projects between £300 and £10,00 for projects which help to improve communities and the lives of people in them.

With the current squeeze on public funding, which will only increase in the short to medium term, its also important to look at how else you can raise funds for your project.  For example, could you sell your choir services to commercial organisations such as launch events, or for weddings?  In order to do this, you'll need clear evidence of what you can achieve - perhaps its pure entertainment or helping communities to work together.  Try writing a mission statement and remember to include anything you don't want to do.  That could be on an ethical or moral level, or perhaps you just want to focus on one area.  Either way, if you're not clear on what you will or will not do, neither will any potential customers be.

Find out more hints and tips about fundraising by attending one of our low-cost workshops.  To book Spring to deliver Bid Writing for Beginners for you, either book a place on our next open workshop or we can deliver a workshop just for you and your group.  Contact us at kash.khunkhuna@springtoaction.co.uk

Meet Spring at the Social Enterprise Trade Fair, Derby

Next Wednesday 22nd July 2009 is an opportunity for local social enterprises in Derby to meet other social enterprises.  It'll be the chance to learn new skills, sell your products and services and find out about support to help your business.

Spring will be leading a Top Tips session into writing funding bids, to help local social enterprises and the voluntary sector to learn new skills. Its a great chance to learn some tips before deciding if you want to commit to attending a longer workshop, like our Bid Writing for Beginners Workshop.

The event will held at the Enterprise Centre, Sheridan Street, Sinfin, DE24 9HG.  Pop along to see us on our stand.

Bid Writing for Beginners workshops return to Derby

Thank you to everyone who has shown such enthusiasm and interest in our Bid Writing for Beginners workshop. We're delighted that the workshop has been group booked for twice for private organisations and are in the process of organising another date and venue for a public session.

We got great feedback from the last workshop, and have decided to extend the event to make sure we can cover all the issues important to writing tenders and bids for public funders in sufficient detail. We'll post more details here and on our eventbrite page as soon as we have them.

Meanwhile if you'd like to find out more, check out our Workshops and Events or contact Kash Khunkhuna to discuss your needs.  We'd love to hear from you. 

Kate

5 Bid Writing for Beginners Places Left

Do you need some help understanding how to write winning bids? Want to give yourself a better chance of success, but don't know where to start?

Or perhaps you've written a few bids before, but want to get a bit of extra support to take your skills to the next stage?

Spring to Action is running a low cost workshop to assist enterprises and organisations in Derby / Derbyshire to understand the basics of writing tenders and bids.  For just £10 for a 2 hour session on 21st April 2009 you'll get some easy tips and tricks to improve your skills and develop tender writing skills.

With experience in writing and securing bids for organisations including the European Social Fund, Learning and Skills Council, local authorities, East Midlands Development Agencies and other national bodies, staff at Spring to Action are able to distill simple tricks in a friendly environment.  You'll get the chance to ask plenty of questions on your specific circumstances.

Book a place

Writing Tenders and Bids: Spring's Tips and Tricks

Twice now we've presented on writing tenders and bids for UnLtd to help local social enterprises to fundraise - and for those of you who couldn't make the session, here are a few of our hints and tips.

What you'll need to get you started:

• A project plan or business plan
• Policies - equal opportunities and environmental
• Leaflets about your business
• Previous year's annual reports (if you have them)
• Budget / accounts
• Research - both local and national

You'll need to get out and about to ensure your potential customers hear about you - go to meetings, attend networking events where key people will be and go to your sector's award ceremonies.  Talk to people and get business cards.

Issue press releases about your business when there is good news to be heard.  They're free to generate and can be very effective in your marketing strategy.

Be confident and positive whenever you can.  Positivity attracts people, negativity pushes people away.

Ideas for Fundraising:

• Cold calling
• Word of mouth
• Networking
• Peer Groups
• Events - fun runs, auctions, swishing

Ideas for applying for grants / tenders:

• Be sure that the project / fund you're applying for is right for your organisation
• Look at other applications - see what works and what doesn't
• Plan your time and try not to do things at the last minute
• Be aware of your limitations - if you can't do it or don't have the time consider buying in some skills
• Build your reputation by applying for smaller funding pots first
• Deliver on your promises
• Don't chase funds - think strategically. Only apply for funding because its right for your organisation

One of the key issues here is about ensuring the fund, and the project, are right for your organisation. Often we see organisations who just 'need the money' and who haven't thought through a project which will fit the requirements of the funding pot.  These projects are far less likely to be successful and indeed gain funding.

This is wasted time and often wasted money which could be spent elsewhere.  If you take the time over the project idea stage, it will show in the writing of the bid.  If you're considering buying in someone to write the bid for you, take the effort to be clear about your project idea (e.g. have project meetings with key staff to generate ideas). 

The more successful organisations in funding applications have processes in place to help them generate ideas and ensure the project will work. For smaller organisations, you may instead think about planning out the project stage by stage and consider elements such as costs, outputs, risks, dependancies and personnel needed to make the project work.  This will be time well spent.

I hope those tips are helpful. It's all based on our experiences of writing bids - sometimes with the minimum of notice.  It pays to put the work into relationships in advance and to have case studies, budgets and key documents to hand so you can focus on the project idea during those precious few days you may have to put a tender or bid together.

Kate