Attention all fundraisers!
A unique opportunity to develop your fundraising skills
The Essentials of Fundraising
A new Programme of Training and Development for staff working in Museums,
Libraries and Archives
Award of 6 Bursaries worth £4,000 each
SEMLAC is launching a unique fundraising bursary scheme, aimed at
individuals who have responsibility for fundraising within their
organisation. Over the course of a year, six bursary-holders will be able
to focus on all aspects of arts fundraising, benefiting from expert
teaching and sharing experiences with one another.
This new initiative has been created in response to the difficulties many
museums, libraries and archives have experienced in seriously engaging
with fundraising. Through our ambitious new programme, we aim to trigger a
sea-change - in attitudes, in motivation and in confidence. Over time we
want to train and develop a new generation of fundraisers for the museums,
libraries and archives sector. By recognising fundraising as a strategic
organisational function and by helping talented individuals to make a step-
change in their skills and career potential, we aim to bring substantial
benefit to our sector as a whole.
The programme and its objectives
The programme is designed:
• To raise the profile of fundraising as an integral function of
museums, libraries and archives and to develop an exemplary approach to
strategic fundraising
• To build skills, expertise and confidence among staff responsible
for fundraising and to broaden their horizons and networks
• To build a pool of qualified and informed practitioners who are
able to act as trailblazers for fundraising across the MLA sector
• To dispel the notion that only big, national, or Royal
institutions can aspire to fundraising success
• To secure the commitment and involvement of CEOs (or their
equivalent) and tackle internal cultural factors which can get in the way
of successful fundraising
What the programme consists of
The programme will provide participants with the tools to tackle a wide
range of challenges and to realise the fundraising potential of their
organisations.
• The programme will begin in January 2006 and, over the course of
the year, will provide roughly 15 teaching days, allowing plenty of time
for participants to acquire a thorough understanding of all aspects of
fundraising and, at the same time, to focus on their own organisation's
fundraising needs.
• In addition to discussing ideas and experiences with fellow
bursary-holders, participants will benefit from practical advice and
guidance from specialist practitioners from within and outside both the
museum, library and archive sector and the SEMLAC region. The course is
being designed for SEMLAC by Carole Strachan, who runs a specialist
consultancy service for the arts, heritage, education and charity sectors,
building on a professional career which encompassed all these areas.
Throughout the year, Carole will act as mentor to bursary-holders and help
them to develop their own fundraising strategies and action plans.
• The highly-regarded National Arts Fundraising School will form the
core part of the training and all bursary-holders will attend the School
in Ayrshire from 26 - 31 March 2006.
• Bursary-holders will prepare for their attendance at NAFS in a
series of introductory get-togethers and workshops. These will be designed
to give participants a solid grounding in fundraising issues, and enable
them to set targets which they hope to achieve by the end of the year.
• The programme will be supplemented by a further five subject-
specific workshops and by two tutorial days, at which the group will be
able to address issues directly relating to the development of their
individual fundraising strategies and organisational projects.
• The programme will provide opportunities for bursary holders to
shadow fundraisers working in different sectors and encourage the cross-
fertilisation of ideas with organisations outside the MLA sector.
• Attendance at the National Arts Fundraising School will give
practitioners access to a fundraising benchmarking database so that they
can compare and evaluate their performance against that of similar
organisations.
• Though some of the sessions will be made available to a wider
audience, most of the work will take place in small, informal tutorial
groups.
Topics will include:
• Fundraising strategies and action planning
• Trust and foundation fundraising
• Business sponsorship versus company giving
• Tackling Lottery applications
• Major appeals
• Setting up a development board
• Effective proposal writing
• Improving promotional material
• Legacies
• Relationship fundraising
• Supporting fundraising with effective marketing and PR strategies
• Building and nurturing creative and fruitful relationships with
local business
• Managing Friends and other membership schemes, both corporate and
individual
• Getting trustees involved in fundraising
• Successful fundraising events
Who should apply?
We will consider applications from individuals who:
 have some or all responsibility for fundraising within their
organisation
 are able to attend the National Arts Fundraising School in
Scotland from 26-31 March 2006 and who commit to attending all other
training sessions
 work in organisations able and willing to support their
involvement in the scheme and committed to the practical implementation of
ideas and expertise acquired through the training. (The CEOs of the
bursary-holders will be expected to attend two of the introductory
sessions).
If you want to apply for a bursary, you must also be able to demonstrate
the following attributes:
 an aptitude for and commitment to fundraising
 motivation and a sense of purpose
 a desire to develop your fundraising skills and apply them to your
organisation
 the potential to enthuse colleagues and inspire them to see that
successful fundraising can be a catalyst for growth and change.
To receive an application form, guidance notes and details of the National
Arts Fundraising School contact Caroline Eade, Development and Marketing
Co-ordinator, SEMLAC, 15 City Business Centre, Hyde Street, Winchester
SO23 7TA; telephone: 01962 858834; email: [log in to unmask]; or go
to www.semlac.org.uk
Closing date for applications is Friday 9 December 2005
Interviews will be held in Winchester on Wednesday 11 January 2006
Please note: the bursary awards will cover the costs of all the training
sessions and the cost of travelling to NAFS in Scotland, but organisations
will be expected to cover all other travel costs.
We are very conscious of the difficulty that may face applicants whose
absences from relatively small organisations might cause serious problems
for the organisation. We want to do everything we can to assist in such
circumstances, to enable good people to come forward. SEMLAC will
therefore consider modest applications for funding for backfill during
absence in order to provide essential cover.
Carole Strachan Associates
Carole has worked in the voluntary sector for almost thirty years. After
studying History at Oxford, she started her career in regional theatre at
the Victoria Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, moving from there to the Royal
Exchange in Manchester. She was at Welsh National Opera for ten years and
under her direction, the company's marketing strategy was widely
acknowledged as one of the most distinctive and successful in the arts
world, and one in which marketing and fundraising were closely integrated.
Her fundraising experience was acquired at the National Trust, St Hugh's
College Oxford and Sobell House Hospice Charity in Oxford.
Since 1998, she has been running Carole Strachan Associates - a specialist
consultancy service for the arts, heritage, education and charity sectors,
offering a range of support, including fundraising, strategic planning
and training.
With Matthews Millman, Carole has considerable experience of the MLA
sector. Collaborations include:
• SEMLAC/MLA/ British Library: review of funding information and
sectoral needs. During the course of the review, Carole undertook Case
Studies on Derby City Museum and Art Gallery, Derbyshire Record Office and
Suffolk Record Office.
• Museum in Docklands: appraisal of market targets and strategy;
review of fundraising and development of strategy
• Gainsborough's House, Sudbury: Development Review encompassing
business planning, capital development and fundraising strategy
• Jewish Museum: audience development plan for HLF capital
application; market research; fundraising appraisal
• Gladstone Library at St Deiniol's, Hawarden, North Wales: market
appraisal and audience development plan; fundraising strategy
Carole's other arts clients have included Dance Umbrella, the Citizens
Theatre, Pegasus Theatre, Derby Playhouse, the Africa Centre, the Sherman
Theatre, Scottish Music Centre, and Music Theatre Wales.
Training has been part of Carole's experience since the mid-1980s when, as
Head of Marketing at Welsh National Opera, she was host to four
consecutive recipients of the highly prized, (now sadly defunct) ACGB Arts
Marketing Bursary. The scheme enabled young professionals to spend 6-12
months with an arts organisation and become an active part of their
marketing team under the supervision and guidance of a mentor/tutor.
From 1990-1992, Carole was Director of Marketing the Arts in Oxfordshire -
an arts marketing company which became one of the leading agencies of its
kind in the U.K. One of her roles was to devise and deliver a programme of
marketing training for staff working in local authority museums and
libraries.
Carole has recently undertaken fundraising training programmes for the
National Library of Wales, NITRO and Music Theatre Wales, while mentoring
of key staff, especially those working in senior positions in small
organisations, has been a rewarding part of Carole's work. Clients include
development staff at Museum in Docklands, at Highgate School and at Derby
Playhouse.
Current clients include the St David's Hall & New Theatre Trust, Dawns-i-
Bawb, the National Library of Wales and the Guildhall School of Music and
Drama.
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