Most small charities I meet fund themselves in sprints. A grant round opens and everyone drops everything. An appeal runs for a month and the team runs on adrenaline. Then it ends, everyone is wrecked, and in a few months it starts again from nothing.
Sprints feel productive. They are also the fastest way to burn out a small team.
A pipeline, not a panic
The alternative is a pipeline: a short list of funding sources that you work on a little every week, so something is always moving.
A simple pipeline has three parts.
- Grants. A calendar of the five to ten grants that genuinely fit you, with dates, and one person who owns it.
- Regular givers. People who give a small amount every month. They are worth far more over time than a one-off donor, and they are cheaper to keep than to find.
- Partners. Local businesses, churches and clubs who share your values and want to help in more than one way.
Start small
You don't need to build all of it this month. Pick one.
If you have no grant calendar, spend an hour this week listing every grant you applied for last year and when it opened. That is your calendar.
If you have no regular givers, write to your ten most loyal supporters and ask them personally. Tell them one true story about what their support makes possible.
Steady beats heroic
Funding that lasts comes from small, regular actions, not big pushes. It is less exciting. It is also how organisations stop living year to year.
If you want help building your pipeline, that is a big part of what a TenXed retainer covers.