Today’s items comes courtesy of the Marsha Miles Consultancy (MMC), which is based in the South West region but covers the whole of the UK.
MMC’s mission is to empower and nurture charities and social enterprises to grow and thrive, through the delivery of professional, high quality consultancy services and products. Its vision is to see a strong, sustainable voluntary and social enterprise sector, able to meet the needs, and enrich the lives, of those they support.
We’re delighted to reproduce MMC’s blog on the support available for charities tackling the energy crisis, which has lots of fantastic tips and links to a range of services, resources and agencies:
“As August had us reading headlines with terrifying statistics around crippling energy bill increases for charities, we felt we needed to do something. Not just to support our own clients but for our wider network and particularly those charities where this was a critical issue as to whether they could continue.
“We’ve spent the last few weeks meeting online or over the phone with a number of organisations who reached out to us after our offer of free support calls with information and resources on getting bid ready, and most importantly, where to look for these potential emergency funds.
“Here is what we shared and the links to bookmark:
“There are a range of free and paid for options to consider. You need to carefully use your limited time to find and prioritise potential sources of funding. Prospect research is ongoing and should be done regularly (e.g. weekly, fortnightly, monthly). You will need a spreadsheet or CRM to track this.
Free sources
- Your warm funders – those who’ve funded you before
- Charity Commission search. Click on advanced search and select ‘makes grants to organisations’ and ‘main way of carrying out purposes is grant making’
- Community Volunteering Service (CVS) – may produce a newsletter
- Community Foundation
- County and District Councils
- Funding 4 All
- Charity Excellence Framework
- Funders websites
- 360 Giving and Giving is Great – both publish grants data
Paid for sources
- GRIN (Grants, Resources Information and News) – highly recommended, has a South West focus and a reasonable cost
- Others: Funds Online, Grants Online etc.
Other
- Organisation campaigning against food poverty https://www.trusselltrust.org/
Cost of Living
“Free list of funders (for charitable sector and/or clients), these lists are updated:
- Charity Excellence Framework: https://www.charityexcellence.co.uk/Home/BlogDetail?Link=Cost-Of_Living_Grant_Funding
- Grants Online: https://www.grantsonline.org.uk/cost-of-living-grants.html
- Directory of Social Change (DSC): funding guides, training, articles, funding sources. https://www.dsc.org.uk/category/cost-of-living-hub/
- Grants to help disadvantaged and vulnerable people – examples – Activities
- Western Power Distribution, Energy Affordability Fund: https://www.cse.org.uk/news/view/2712
- ASDA Foundation, Cost of Living Grant https://www.asdafoundation.org/foundation-grants
Grants and ideas for the charity workplace
- Ofgem business energy grants and schemes: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-businesses/find-business-energy-efficiency-grants-and-schemes
- Search for funders supporting core costs and overheads – suggest using proportional overheads and to add 5-9 % for multi-year grants to cover inflation.
- Energy bill relief scheme: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers
- Government Funding – help your business become greener: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/find-funding-to-help-your-business-become-greener
- Funding for solar energy for charities: https://www.cse.org.uk/local-energy/funding-your-project and https://www.solarsense-uk.com/filter_sector/non-profit-sector/
- Energy Saving Trust – funding for charities and communities groups – https://energyredress.org.uk/announcements/ps22-million-available-charities-and-community-groups-through-ofgem-energy-redress
- Ideas to reduce energy costs within your charity workplace from The Carbon Trust – https://www.carbontrust.com/resources/office-energy-efficiency-guides
Other useful resources/signposting
- DSC Cost of Living Hub – https://www.dsc.org.uk/category/cost-of-living-hub/?dm_i=6S7,811Q7,MC5AF9,WUGEG,1
- NCVO – Cost of Living news and insights (you may need to join, membership is free for small charities) https://www.ncvo.org.uk/news-and-insights/news-index/supporting-members-cost-of-living-crisis/#/
- Giving is Great – directory of funding provided by funders to organisations https://givingisgreat.org/donors/
- A list of do’s and don’ts of navigating through Cost of Living from Good Finance https://www.goodfinance.org.uk/latest/post/communicating-through-cost-living-crisis-dos-and-donts-charities-and-social-enterprises
“Utility costs fall under overheads or core costs. Ensure you explain why support for core costs is even more important now and the potential impact of your organisation not being there (if your core costs aren’t covered) will have on your beneficiaries.
“As always, prioritise those funders you have a good fit to and your warm funders (those who’ve donated to you in the past)
“Have those internal discussions about the energy requirements and needs of your charity.
“We hope these links help you and your organisation prepare for this challenging season. For tips on getting funding ready in order to respond quickly, take a read of Marisa’s blogs, and if there is anything we can help with or you’d like to discuss please do get in touch. Give us a call on: 01626 367021 or email: hello@marshamilesconsultancy.co.uk we’d love to help.”
