by John Harris | May 13, 2025 | news
This week we heard that we had succeeded in an application worked on with Collective Encounters Tessa Buddle – for £15,000 from the Garfield Weston Foundation. Their work has grown year on year, and they now run participatory theatre programmes that work with adults in areas of the region where there is still little opportunity to participate in the arts (Creative Communities); with women, and particularly the radical contribution women have made to the region (Women In Action); family groups whose voices are seldom heard including cared for young people and their families/ carers, unaccompanied young migrants, ethnically minoritised carers and families, and Older People. They have researched and published a guide to dementia-friendly arts activities). The Centre for Excellence provides training and sector development nationally and internationally, and the Radical Makers programme reached people who would normally be excluded from such opportunities.
by John Harris | May 13, 2025 | news
As consultants with the Lloyds Bank Foundation Enhance programme we ar delighted to be working with the Bradford African Community. We met with Usmani the CEO recently and have taken on supporting them in diversifying their funding. We will work on a pipeline of potential funders in order to help them raise the funds to carry on with their work. The charity supports people from number of refugee camps across East Africa including the Congo Kinshasa, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Zambia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Somalia and enables them to ‘become productive members of society’ as Usmani put it. This includes ESOL classes and job readiness programmes and helps people into volunteering roles so that they can gain much needed experience. The charity states that “Through our integration in the British main Communities, we experienced various challenges such as: Language barriers, Isolation, Difficulties to navigating new system, Emotional health difficulties and Limited income.”
by John Harris | Apr 11, 2025 | news
In these tough times for fundraising a success is more than welcome! John has worked with Together Dementia Support for 3 years – helping raise over £1,000,000 over that time – but it has got harder as all fundraisers know. This makes this grant of £65,000 over two years very, very welcome. What is it for? The funding will support a Carer Support Co-ordinator – a full time post at 35 hours per week. They will manage a large caseload of carers, keeping in touch with them all and prioritising who needs a visit. They will run Dementia Cafes, Carers’ Zooms and Carer Training courses alongside other staff and the volunteer Carer’s Champions. This support is for the carers of those who live with dementia – 360 unpaid carers who care for nearly 300 people with dementia. For many of them, support provides a lifeline that helps them avoid carer breakdown.
by John Harris | Apr 11, 2025 | news
John completed an application for 3 year funding for co-ordinating and developing the many volunteers who are at the heart of the Hippodrome Theatre in Todmorden. £23,000 was secured for developing a new volunteer strategy, employing a part-time Volunteer Co-ordinator and paying for training for the volunteers in lighting, sound, heritage/conservation and first aid. This will really support the Hippodrome in its transition to a redeveloped and extended building.
by John Harris | Feb 15, 2025 | news
Third Sector Consultancy is about much more than fundraising on its own. John and Rachel have worked with Otley Action for around 6 years now – this latest episode was to facilitate the Away Day for trustees and staff. It included presentations from two of the staff (one the Digital Inclusion worker and the other working to develop support for people with dementia). We helped participants review the current situation and to think ahead in a strategic way – given the tough environment charities now find themselves in. The discussion around strategy included assessing the funding needs for the next 2 years. Over the past 6 years we have guided Otley Action in carrying out comprehensive 360 degree consultations – leading to the local Lottery officer asking to use the report as an exemplar.
by John Harris | Feb 15, 2025 | news
It’s great news when we’re successful – especially with a new client as, of course, we want to deliver value for money. We’ve just heard that we have helped Move2Change win a grant of £20,000. This will fund Adventures that Change. Adventures that Change (AtC) is an outdoor wellbeing project working with communities across the South Pennines area. AtC will deliver a range of outdoor programmes aimed at enabling people to get outdoors, get active and get connected. The project will provide an accessible, safe and supportive experience that builds people’s skills and confidence. Move2Change will work with a network of community partners to ensure the AtC project reaches those that will most benefit from getting outdoors – those who face significant barriers including finance, isolation, accessibility and a perception that the outdoors is not for “people like me”. The benefits for participants include an improvement in mental/physical wellbeing; development of social connections/ relationships; development of confidence/self belief. The project will add value to the existing support and service delivery of our partner network and enhance the experience of their clients. AtC will have 3 elements; AtC Experiences – adventure tasters and wellbeing activities. Activities will include walking, climbing, cycling, trail running and orienteering; AtC Skills – building on the Experiences programme – development of outdoor skills, knowledge, confidence, working as a group. This can be through a short bouldering programme and learning about safety and equipment. It could be a navigation and hill safety programme; AtC Explore/Challenge – new challenges and new areas. This follows the first two elements and people take on more adventurous challenges in more challenging areas e.g., the Yorkshire 3 Peaks walk or a wild camp.
by John Harris | Feb 6, 2025 | news
As a Moneytree associate John has been working with Stanley Grange for 6 years – a lovely community for adults with severe learning disabilities and complex needs. The latest success is raising a grant of £20,000 to contribute to the costs of building a new workshop space from two containers. This will reinvigorate the garden and plant centre activities for residents and also local people. Through this work John has now raised almost £900,000 over the 6 years!!
by John Harris | Nov 24, 2024 | news
For a few months John has been working with Hammersley Homes – in Hampshire. Hammersley Homes provides a service to people with enduring severe mental health issues and psychotic conditions – a service that is not available elsewhere due to any statutory support being short term only – and without which the clients they support suffer. Now, most of these unfortunate and vulnerable people live alone, often in chaos and unable to manage; or they are homeless; or they live with family members who one day won’t be there for them. They live too often without friends, a sense of community, or a sense of purpose – things we all need for our general wellbeing. Working with a team of trained staff and volunteers, HH visit people who experience enduring mental health challenges and illnesses in Hampshire, relieving loneliness and doing what they can to help clients reach their own personal goals and live their best life. Through offering friendship and help with tasks which clients struggle to manage – such as cooking, online access, budgeting, incoming mail, benefits, social and community interaction, and hobbies – lives can be enriched. This grant of £20,000 will contribute to the key role of CEO. They had secured funding for the Outreach programme for the next two years but this does not cover other essential costs. The CEO role is pivotal to the organisation and services. She manages all eight staff, puts in place all necessary policies and procedures which safeguard the outreach workers and volunteers, leads on the proper financial management and income generation of the charity, develops methods to capture and assess the impact of the support provided, supports the trustees in developing the strategic and business planning, leads on collaboration with other agencies.
by John Harris | Nov 15, 2024 | news
John has been working with Together Dementia Support for some time now – and together have achieved significant results. The latest is a 3 year funding grant of over £300,000 from Reaching Communities to support their invaluable work in supporting people with dementia and their carers.The TDS Vision is that everyone living with dementia and their carers has access to support, friendships, stimulating activities and has their voice heard. This is done through these objectives: 1. To improve the quality of life of our service users 2. To amplify the voice of people living with dementia and carers, and showcase their talents, enabling them to participate in research and influence the provision of dementia services 3. To work with partners to improve services 4. To increase awareness and understanding of dementia and reduce stigma. This project, Together We are Strong, sought investment in 4 key staff roles – the CEO, Service Delivery Manager, Business Development Manager, Volunteer Coordinator and impact monitoring. These are key roles that the organisation relies on to be successful. The immediate outputs of a decision to fund would be the continuation of the management and provision of services and increased capacity to undertake evidence-based development work and fundraising. With the small, proposed changes to the business support side of their staffing, they should have more focus on income generation opportunities and the marketing and communication of their work. To date TDS has focussed almost entirely on delivering more services to more people. Now they are focussing more on showing the impact of what they’ve been doing and getting others to support that work.
by John Harris | Oct 25, 2024 | news
We are working with the Bridge Church in Otley (Leeds). The main aims are capital ones – raise funds for a new roof and to refurbish the Manor Room, which isa the main community space in the church. Also, we are supporting them with the running costs which pay for the community and social activities of which there are many – and we’ve just heard that a grant of £20,000 has come through. The church acts as a community resource open to all and they find ways in which people can come together for mutual support and connectedness. The church accepted a leading role in the Warm – Welcome Space movement in the town and continues to support those on low incomes. Third Sector Consultancy helped the church consult with its users and the surveys by participants and volunteers show that the community groups and activities play a significant part in community life. Participants and volunteers rated the importance of the groups to the social and community life of Otley as almost 10 out of 10. In telling us what people get out of taking part a huge theme was that of connectedness, of meeting people, of not being alone. For the mums and dads at the toddlers’ groups a very important theme is that of their children’s development being enhanced and mutual support. Other significant areas identified included: the lovely food, helping those with mental health issues, support for carers of those with dementia and intergenerational contact. One person said: “This lovely church and all its groups and activities are essential for families and the community of Otley. It has been a source of comfort and sociability for generations.”
