Blog

Trewen Meadows is a Herefordshire-based charity improving quality of life for children, adults and older people with a wide range of needs, including physical disabilities, learning disabilities and mental health conditions, through specialist equine activities, therapeutic support and accessible outdoor provision.

Established in 1991, the charity supports people aged 5 to 85 with a wide range of physical, emotional, psychological and social needs. Through riding, horse care and tailored activity, Trewen Meadows helps participants build physical strength, confidence, independence and social connection in a safe, inclusive environment.

Working across one of England’s most rural counties, the charity addresses the combined challenges of disability, rural isolation and limited access to specialist provision. It currently supports around 180 people each year through more than 2,000 sessions, and following the opening of its new purpose-built, fully accessible centre in September 2025, now has the capacity to support over 300 people annually.

The Challenge: Moving from Capital Success to Sustainable Delivery

Orchard Fundraising had already supported Trewen Meadows to finalise a successful capital campaign, helping the charity secure over £1 million to construct its new purpose-built, fully accessible centre.

The completion of the building was a major achievement. It gave Trewen Meadows the space, accessibility and facilities needed to increase its reach and develop a more ambitious programme of activity. However, it also created a new fundraising challenge.

Capital projects are often easier for funders to understand. A building is visible, tangible and clearly transformative. Once that building is in place, the challenge becomes more complex: how to fund the people, programmes and core costs needed to bring that space fully to life.

For Trewen Meadows, this meant pivoting from a capital campaign to a new phase of fundraising focused on programme delivery, volunteer development, core costs and innovation. The charity could now support many more people, but needed additional income to deliver that increased activity safely and sustainably.

This was particularly important because Trewen Meadows operates with a very small staff team, supported by a strong volunteer base. The organisation achieves a huge amount with limited staff capacity, but there was not the time or in-house fundraising expertise to identify new opportunities, shape fundable projects and manage the next phase of growth while continuing to deliver services on the ground.

Their funding situation was also complicated by the success of the capital campaign The charity’s recent accounts reflected large one-off donations, which made some funders reluctant or unable to support further applications, even though this income was an anomaly. Some funders who had supported the capital campaign could not fund again in consecutive years, while others struggled to place equine-assisted therapy, hippotherapy and therapeutic riding within traditional funding categories.

Despite this, the potential was clear. The challenge was translating that potential into compelling, fundable programmes that would help Trewen Meadows move confidently into its next phase.

Our Approach: Collaborative, Responsive and Opportunity-Led

Our work with Trewen Meadows has been highly collaborative. Rather than simply identifying funders and writing applications in isolation, we have worked closely with the charity to understand what is most needed, what is fundable, and how individual opportunities can support the organisation’s wider development.

A key part of the role has been helping Trewen Meadows move from a “shopping list” of operational needs to a more strategic fundraising approach. The charity had clear ideas about what it wanted to do, from expanding activity for children and young people with SEND to developing supported volunteering opportunities, investing in specialist equipment and exploring new therapeutic approaches. Our role has been to test those ideas against funder priorities, identify the strongest angles, and shape applications around need, impact and long-term value.

One strong example of this was the development of a supported volunteering project. Volunteers already play an essential role at Trewen Meadows, helping participants access sessions safely and confidently. The idea was also shaped by feedback from the beneficiary community, with younger participants wanting to see people like themselves represented in volunteering roles. Together, we identified an opportunity to extend the existing model by creating more inclusive volunteering pathways for disabled people themselves.

The resulting project will introduce a buddy system, pairing an able-bodied volunteer with a disabled volunteer so they can support one another. This grassroots, co-designed approach gives people who may have participated at Trewen Meadows for many years the opportunity to take on greater responsibility, build confidence and contribute more actively to the life of the charity.

We have also helped Trewen Meadows identify and approach funders they had not previously considered. This has included local and national opportunities, funders interested in children and young people, disability, rural communities, outdoor activity, innovation and equine-related work. In some cases, the approach has involved traditional application processes; in others, it has involved direct conversations, relationship-building and tailored approaches to trustees.

This flexible, responsive way of working has been particularly important for a small charity with limited internal capacity. Trewen Meadows is agile, ambitious and forward-thinking, but it needs experienced fundraising support to turn that ambition into sustainable income.

Our Impact: Building Capacity, Securing Funding and Opening New Doors

From January to September 2026, Orchard Fundraising has helped Trewen Meadows secure more than £46,000 additional funding towards programme and development priorities.

This includes a £17,600 grant from a national funder towards the supported volunteering scheme, a £10,340 grant from a family foundation to support a SEND Youth Equine Skills programme, a £10,000 local authority grant towards after-school and holiday equine activities for children and young people with SEND, and a £3,600 grant from a local fund towards outdoor equine activities for primary school children.

We also helped secure £5,000 towards the cost of a new horse, an unusual but essential need. Horses used for this work have to be carefully selected to support participants with different ages, weights and levels of need, so funding for this kind of specialist resource makes a direct difference to the charity’s ability to deliver.

This funding is helping Trewen Meadows make fuller use of its new facilities, expand its programme of activity and reach more people across Herefordshire. The supported volunteering project is particularly significant because it strengthens both capacity and inclusion. By creating volunteering opportunities for disabled people, the charity is not only increasing the support available during sessions, but also empowering beneficiaries to develop skills, confidence and leadership.

Alongside income generation, our work has helped create greater focus. Following the capital campaign, Trewen Meadows needed to look beyond its existing pool of supporters and find funders who could understand the next phase of its work. We have helped explain the one-off nature of the charity’s capital income, reframe the need around programme delivery and core capacity, and demonstrate why continued investment is essential now that the new centre is open.

The result is not just new funding, but a clearer route through the transition from capital fundraising into sustainable programme delivery, with new long-term funder relationships beginning to develop.

The Future: Supporting Innovation and the Next Phase of Growth

Trewen Meadows is an ambitious charity with a clear appetite for innovation. Alongside its established therapeutic riding activity, it is now developing new approaches including Hippotherapy and Equine Assisted Therapy, with the aim of extending its offer to benefit more people.

This is an exciting but challenging area for fundraising. The work combines elements of health, wellbeing, disability support, social connection, outdoor activity and therapeutic intervention, and does not always sit neatly within traditional funding categories. Part of our ongoing role will be helping Trewen Meadows identify funders who are open to innovation and able to understand the value of this kind of provision.

Looking further ahead, Trewen Meadows is also beginning to think about the next stage of site development. Future plans include a café, an outdoor ménage area for summer use, and an eco-friendly respite centre for families of disabled children. The vision is to create a safe, fully adapted environment where children can take part in meaningful outdoor activity while parents and carers have space for rest and reassurance.

Trewen Meadows has the facilities, vision and community need behind it. With the right fundraising strategy and support, it can continue to grow sustainably, reach more people and make an even greater difference to disabled children, adults, older people and families across rural Herefordshire.

“Orchard Fundraising has helped us turn our dreams for Trewen Meadows into reality. Their support has helped us secure vital funding as we grow our new centre, giving us the opportunity to create a place where we can make a lasting difference to the children, young people and families we support.”

— Claire Chandler, Centre Manager, Trewen Meadows