2022 proved to be a challenging 10th anniversary year for GRIN, with an expanding workload, particularly towards the end of the year with an influx of enquiries (many cost-of-living related), keeping the daily grant bulletins going despite both members of the GRIN team catching COVID and related follow-up illnesses, and regular battles with phone, email and website gremlins. Even our annual April Fool’s Day prank backfired spectacularly, when the announcement of the RING (an anagram of GRIN) Foundation, including quotes from Barbara Dwyer (aka barbed wire) and Joe King (aka joking) resulted in over 100 requests for further information, all of which needed to be sensitively responded to.
We’ve deliberately kept GRIN as a small social enterprise, consisting of just 2 people, one of whom (Dominie) works full-time as the Economic and Regeneration Manager for Place at North Devon Council. Although we have the opportunity to expand the business, our preferred approach has been to limit the work we take on, and this will continue into 2023 (and probably beyond). We draw on a number of other social businesses that offer similar services to GRIN to help us with enquiries we don’t have capacity for.
This article summarises our approach and ambitions for 2023, but, before this, we’d like to wish all our subscribers, followers and readers a healthy and successful 2023! Happy New Year everyone!
1. NEW WORK & PRO BONO SUPPORT – we’re committed to several large projects throughout 2023 and therefore won’t have the capacity to take on any further work until April 2024. However, we’re always happy to advise and help other projects and have set aside an hour a day (10am-11am) for PRO BONO support. Please note, however, that existing subscribers will receive priority over new enquiries.
2. GRANTS DATABASE – the GRIN Grants Database expanded quite significantly during 2022 and we’ll therefore be committing more of our time and resources to updating, developing and improving the database this year.
3. DAILY GRANTS & RESOURCES BULLETIN – we’ll be producing a daily grant bulletin every weekday throughout the year, from Tuesday 10th January to Friday 15th December. Researching and writing up the bulletins normally takes 3-4 hours each day and our afternoons are block booked out for this. We expect to produce around 250 bulletins during 2023, featuring around 700 UK-wide grant programmes.
4. DAILY NEWS ITEM – in addition to the daily GRIN grants bulletin, we also post a daily news item on our website (scroll down to the ‘Latest News’ section). This is where we often publicise opportunities emailed to us by other agencies, such as job and training opportunities and forthcoming events. This is a free service and is not restricted to daily bulletin and database subscribers. If you’d like us to promote any jobs, training, events or just tell other agencies about what you do, simply email us at info@grin.coop.
5. BLOGS BY CLARITY CIC and EMMA BEESTON – blogs by Sarah Taragon and Stephen Woollett of Clarity CIC and philanthropy specialist and adviser, Emma Beeston, are one of the highlights of the month in the GRIN office and we hope to continue these throughout 2023. In fact, we have a blog by Sarah scheduled for this Friday, 13th January, and we’re thrilled that Emma’s first book, “Advising Philanthropists: Principles and Practice”, will be published by the Directory of Social Change in February. If you’re interested in providing a blog on anything related to the not-for-profit sector, either on a regular or one-off basis, please get in touch via our info@grin.coop address. The blogs we feature reach several thousand organisations and individuals in the not-for-profit sector and they can be a great way to promote what you do.
6. SOCIAL MEDIA POSTINGS – we receive more information on grant and resource opportunities than we can usefully deploy in the daily grant bulletins or in the news section of our website. We plan to continue to place any additional items, including contract opportunities, on our Facebook page.
7. PRICE STRUCTURE FOR 2023 – we’re committed to maintaining the following price structure until 2030:
o Daily Grants Bulletin – £15 per year for an individual subscriber or £25 per year for multiple subscribers from the same organisation (which can include volunteers and trustees). Organisations that would like to try out the daily bulletins can continue to sign up for a free 2-week trial.
o Monthly Grants Database – £60 for a 12-month period or £100 for a 24-month period. Both subscription rates include the daily grant bulletins.
o Commissions – unfortunately, we will be unable to take on any further commissioned work until at least 1 April 2024. However, if you’re looking for quality advice and support, we can refer to a number of similar agencies that we’ve worked alongside over many years and are more than happy to recommend.
Please get in touch with either Dominie or Paul by email at info@grin.coop or phone 07387 377043 if you have any questions or would like to discuss any of the services detailed above.
We think 2023 is shaping up to be another extremely challenging year for the not-for-profit sector. The work you do is amazing and often innovative – if we can help you sustain this through the services GRIN offers, please get in touch. With our best wishes for the year ahead.
Paul and Dominie
GRIN SW LLP
Company No. OC374833
Phone: 07387 377043
Email: info@grin.coop
Web: www.grin.coop
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grin.coop
