Mentoring and Support

No matter how experienced you are, we all have blind spots and it's impossible to know what you don’t know. Having a trusted advisor or mentor can go a long way to addressing this risk and provide a valuable independent sounding board.

Equally most not-for-profits will find at some stage of their development that they lack the capacity, knowledge, skills, or experience needed to progress. Support from a sector specialist such as Heaward Solutions can help.

Since Heaward Solutions was established in 2017 we have always sought to act as a trusted advisor for our clients. Due to the breadth of experience and knowledge we can draw upon, the topics covered in these discussions frequently go beyond fundraising. We have provided both mentoring and practical support to our clients across a wide range of topics. Our ability to both provide guidance and offer practical support, depending on the individual needs of our clients, is one of the most valuable aspects of our work.

Our offer

All our packages include a mentoring component. This time can be used to review any areas of concern that you may have and discuss the available options to address these.

Mentoring Only

(suitable for any not-for-profit organisation)

We can provide 1-2-1 mentoring for £65/hour on an ad hoc basis or £780 for 12 monthly 1.5 hour sessions. These can be conducted either at our offices or via Zoom.

Packages

In addition to our ad hoc offer, we have developed a range of annual mentoring and support packages that are designed to address the challenges we commonly see clients encountering at different stages of their organisation's evolution. These have all been designed to suit the needs of not-for-profit organisations at differing stages of their journey.

Support for new organisations

We can help you get going by advising you on how to get started and then supporting you to develop and implement a suitable initial funding strategy for your organisation.

People who set up a not-for-profit typically do so because they care about something and want to make the world better, not because they have a burning desire to run an organisation. This brings with it a huge passion for their work but may also mean that some of the less exciting tasks are neglected.

Setting up a not-for-profit organisation, be that an unincorporated community group, a sports club, a social enterprise, or a small charity is daunting. To start with there are huge questions about what legal structure is best suited to your objectives and with this choice comes a range of pros and cons. Once you are up and running, we can help you to decide how to deliver your activities in the most effective way possible, identify and engage with valuable partners, engage with relevant politicians and gain their support, and build public awareness of your organisation and its work.

We offer the following packages:

Start-up support

This package is designed to help those looking to set up a not-for-profit determine the most suitable structure (Charity, CIC, CIO etc…) and provide mentoring and support over the first 12m of operation. It includes:

  • One, two-hour initial planning/support meeting
  • A scheduled bi-monthly 1.5h mentoring meeting
  • Unlimited telephone/email support between meetings
  • New to fundraising

    This package will help N4Ps new to fundraising from grants and other sources to develop the necessary basic skills and start fundraising. It includes:

    We can provide 1-2-1 mentoring for £65/hour on an ad hoc basis or £780 for 12 monthly 1.5 hour sessions. These can be conducted either at our offices or via Zoom.

  • A ½ day bid writing training for up to 2 people
  • A scheduled 1h mentoring meeting each month
  • An Initial bespoke funding report covering potentially suitable grants to a maximum award value of £10k
  • Support for small organisations

    We can help you understand the full range of fundraising options available, select the right option(s) and then help you secure the funds you need. We can also help you ensure that you have a clear strategy in place and have taken the action needed to ensure this is effectively delivered.

    Once an N4P organisation passes the end of its difficult first year a wide range of new opportunities open up and with these come different challenges. Important topics include:

  • Understanding how to effectively track inputs and outputs for your work,
  • How to measure your outcomes/impact,
  • How to build and sustain new partnerships
  • How do you engage and consult with the growing range of stakeholders who have an interest in your work,
  • How you grow and diversify your income streams,
  • We offer the following packages:

    Grant Fundraising Support

    This package is designed to support N4Ps to commence and maintain an effective grant fundraising programme. This includes:

  • A full bespoke funding report
  • 1h scheduled mentoring meeting every two months
  • Regular updates when new funding opportunities are identified that may be suitable
  • Unlimited telephone/email support between meetings
  • Price: £100/month

    Grant Fundraising Support Plus

    For those N4P who are really focused on fundraising from grants and is an enhancement of the “Grant Fundraising Support programme”. It includes two professionally written bids each year with a value of up to £10k and more frequent mentoring. This includes everything in the Grant Fundraising Support package plus:

  • Preparation of two small bids (under £10k)
  • 1h scheduled mentoring meeting per month
  • Regular updates when new funding opportunities are identified that may be suitable.
  • Price: £175/month

    Support to Grow

    This package is designed to support N4Ps as they work to build and deliver a comprehensive bespoke multi-strand 3-year fundraising strategy. It offers:

  • Support to develop a multi-strand 3-year fundraising strategy
  • A 1.5h mentoring meeting per month primarily focused on planning and implementation.
  • Price: £265/month

    Capital project advisor

    This includes regular advice and support with project planning to help ensure the effective delivery of a capital project providing advice and assistance covering topics like community/political support, site selection, planning consent, and consultation, business planning, procurement etc. This is delivered through 1 day of bespoke consultancy support per month plus advice/support via scheduled meetings as required.

    Price: Contact us for a bespoke quote

    Support for medium-sized organisations

    As not-for-profits start to mature the challenges they experience change, often effective plans are in place but capacity, access to specialist skills and knowledge can be a significant barrier to progress. Heaward Solutions is well placed to help fill these gaps on a short-term basis as your organisation grows.

    We offer the following packages:

    Campaign design and delivery

    This package has been created to support to N4Ps to design and deliver effective community, digital and individual giving campaigns over one year. It includes:

  • The design/implementation of both key seasonal campaigns (Autumn/Christmas/Spring/ Summer) and at least 2 other campaigns using a variety of strategies such as email, social media and video over 12 months.
  • Provision of a dedicated campaign manager for 2 days a month.
  • Outsourced fundraising package

    This package offers a fully outsourced fundraising service covering grants and donation-based campaigns delivered by a skilled and experienced fundraiser with the full support of Heaward Solutions experience. It has the added benefit that it minimises your exposure to oncosts such as holiday and pension and risks like redundancy pay.

    Embedded fundraiser

    This highly bespoke package offers the ability for you to have one of the Heaward Solutions team embedded in your team for up to 3 days a week to undertake fundraising and associated work. All day-to-day workload management is handled by you ensuring that their time is focused where you need it most, they also benefit from the support and capabilities of the wider Heaward Solutions Team.

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