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Case Study
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Fundraising Support for Bristol Horn
Youth Concern
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How Orchard Fundraising helped Bristol Horn Youth Concern charity raise funds during the pandemic
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Organising football and basketball sessions and delivering food parcels to families during the first lockdown are just some of the ways that Bristol Horn Youth Concern supports its community. These were some of the reasons why fundraising consultancy, Orchard Fundraising, decided to offer pro bono fundraising support to voluntary organisations during the pandemic.
Orchard Fundraising provides consultancy services, including fundraising for a wide variety of organisations, including small and medium-sized charities and organisations. These include faith, health, and education organisations to name but a few.
Our experience of fundraising for grassroots organisations was invaluable to Bristol Horn Youth Concern, as we understood the challenges that a volunteer-led organisation faced. Our fundraising support enabled Bristol Horn Youth Concern to continue to provide crucial services to help the communities they serve.
For Khalil Abdi, chair of Bristol Horn Youth Concern, all of its activities are part of its core aim to provide essential services to the East African community. Their aim is to help reduce social deprivation, reduce anti-social behaviour among young people and provide positive activities and support to help improve the wellbeing, outlook and outcomes for people who live in some of the most deprived areas in Bristol. The sports sessions and delivering food parcels are just some of the activities that help Bristol Horn Youth Concern achieve this aim. Another key aim is building bridges with the wider community and improving community relations.
Khalil says: “We work at the heart of the community and understand the culture and challenges that the community, particularly young people face. We work hard to improve community relations by organising sports sessions, and workshops attended by the police, young people and faith leaders. The support from Orchard Fundraising helped us raise funds to continue our vital work, and we are very grateful for what they have achieved.”
With funding from the local council, and the local police to run sports activities for young boys, Bristol Horn Youth Concern has helped reduce anti-social behaviour, including during the lockdown. The pandemic, lockdown and easing of restrictions in the summer of 2020, presented several challenges. Families living in over-crowded accommodation with no personal outdoor space, young people finding it difficult to study at home, an increase in mental health problems and an increase in anti-social behaviour, when restrictions eased.
As many charities and community organisations had experienced a significant drop in fundraising, Orchard Fundraising wanted to ensure that Bristol Horn Youth Concern was able to continue and expand on the services that they provided. Bristol Horn Youth Concern was one of several charities who Orchard Fundraising provided fundraising support for during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Expertise and research and overcoming challenges
With our extensive knowledge of trusts and foundations, including those that support charities in Bristol and the South West, Orchard Fundraising developed a plan and conducted research to develop a list of prospects.
Orchard Fundraising used its knowledge to focus on funders that would consider funding organisations that are not registered charities. We knew of many funders who will give to community organisations as long as they meet specific criteria, specifically that they have a management structure, a constitution and a bank account in the name of the organisation.
A targeted approach
Armed with this knowledge and after having met with Bristol Horn Youth Concern, Orchard Fundraising researched and developed a list of prospects who were offering emergency Covid-19 funding, as the timeline from the application to when a decision would be made would be relatively short. We also targeted funders where we believed that Bristol Horn Youth Concern would have the greatest chance of success.
We built on the relationships that Bristol Horn Youth Concern had with local funders including the police. We developed tailored applications to the Quartet Foundation, Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner’s Fund and the National Lottery Awards for All. Our initial applications were met with great interest, but also generated queries which we had to answer. Orchard Fundraising was a bridge between the funders, and Bristol Horn Youth Concern, ensuring that we were able to answer the queries by liaising with each individual funder, making sure we understood the information that they wanted. We then worked closely with Bristol Horn Youth Concern to ensure that they had the information and that it was presented in an accessible format.
This approach was successful and we were able to raise an incredible amount of more than £21,000 for Bristol Horn Youth Concern, in a short space of time, which increased their income by almost 75%.
The additional funding enabled Bristol Horn Youth Concern to employ another youth worker to conduct outreach work with the local youth, which was invaluable particularly as lockdown eased, and many youths were on the street.
We have continued to work with Bristol Horn Youth Concern on a consultancy basis. Due to our in-depth understanding of fundraising, we provide both practical support by researching and developing and submitting applications and strategic advice on creating applications that will help them develop capacity and more robust governance. Our support has resulted in success and Bristol Horn Youth Concern has recently been awarded a grant to deliver a mental health project among youth.
If you are a charity, community interest group or community interest organisation, and require fundraising support, please do get in touch with us to see how can help you.
Testimonial
“We work at the heart of the community and understand the culture and challenges that the community, particularly young people face. We work hard to improve community relations by organising sports sessions, and workshops attended by the police, young people and faith leaders. The support from Orchard Fundraising helped us raise funds to continue our vital work, and we are very grateful for what they have achieved.”
- Khalil - Chair at Bristol Horn Youth Concern