Meet our Trusts and Foundations team

Amanda and Asma have both been at Crimestoppers for over two years now and continue to enjoy every single minute of their time here - from making new friends to learning about police and Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) funding opportunities which complement our other sources of trust funding. Working within the Business Development team, together, Asma and Amanda make up one full-time role.

Asma: I work two days a week for Crimestoppers on fundraising from trusts and foundations. Trusts and foundations are charities with private, independent and sustainable income which fulfil their purpose by funding other organisations to deliver their own charitable goals.

As well as trusts and foundations, I also apply to other funding bodies such as local and government agencies. When I started at Crimestoppers just over two years ago, I was challenged to see how we might change the way we fundraise to incorporate larger bids as well as small trusts.

Amanda: I work three days a week at Crimestoppers on police and PCC funding. PCCs are elected officials charged with securing efficient and effective policing within a police area. I joined two-and-a-half years ago with a specific remit, which was to assist with growing income to fund our crucial Regional Manager roles.

"Without vital police and PCC funding, we wouldn’t be in a position to sustain each Regional Manager role. Three years ago, income from the PCCs and police was approximately £150,000. I’m delighted to say that we have since increased this by over 70%.”

Asma: My job is to find trust funders with charitable aims and goals aligned to ours whose funding criteria we fit in to. It's then a process of submitting a proposal, which can be a bespoke proposal or completing an application form. This involves working closely with project leads and/or Regional Managers, as well as the Finance team.

Some of the bids can be quite large and time-consuming and others can be relatively simple. I always remind people that from application to result can be anything from four months to a year, as some Trustees only meet once a year!

Amanda: We fundraise through the PCCs and police to the tune of approximately £500,000 annually; not just for Regional Managers but also now for our Fearless Workers (and this is growing).

With over 40 of the 44 PCCs/police force areas funding Crimestoppers, it’s becoming embedded into the charity. It has been a hard journey getting to this stage, though. We work very closely with Regional Managers, completing long and often tedious grant application forms which ask a lot of questions about return on investment. Then there is a waiting game...

Asma: Much of the work we do involves positioning Crimestoppers as a charity which can achieve impact and change for our beneficiaries. It involves working out projects with clear outputs and outcomes, which is essential for fundraising.

"Telling our story with confidence is key to realising potential supporters will eventually back us. We may not be a ‘soft and cuddly’ charity in the traditional sense, but the fact that we have recently been successful with the BBC, which has agreed to air an appeal on our behalf, proves that other people see us as a charity that has impact! My job is to try and put this message into all of our bids."

Amanda: Once the applications are received we’ll receive either a ‘yes’, ‘maybe’ or ‘no’ from the funder. Obviously, if it’s a 'yes', that’s brilliant. However, quarterly reports now have to be put into place – we produce about 160 a year!

If it’s a 'maybe', we’ll work as a team to answer any additional questions and prepare supplementary documents. We seldom get a 'no', but if we do we’ll continue to keep in touch with them and hope that they change their mind.

Asma: One of our main drives across the charity this year has been an increased focus on promoting Fearless as a project. Fearless bid templates are shared across the charity to help each Regional Manager fundraise.

Our first Fearless small grants mailing has gone out and this has been supported by other larger bids to MOPAC (the London Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime) and others.

Emphasising Fearless as a project has meant that we are focused in our fundraising priorities and we are seeing results as the project gets bigger, with more Fearless workers than ever before.

Amanda: Much of my work involves working closely with Regional Managers and Fearless Youth Workers. They provide me with monthly reports to assist with drafting quarterly reports which are submitted to PCCs and police forces who contribute towards funding their vital roles. This keeps them updated on the great and crucial work they deliver on the ground in local hard-to-reach communities. I also attend most operational meetings.

Asma and I work closely to find match-funding for Regional Managers and crucial project funding so that Regional Managers can deliver campaigns and/or funding for Fearless workers.

Asma: Fundraising is a team effort and we could not do our jobs without the input and support of many of our great colleagues across Crimestoppers who regularly support and provide input into our bids.

 

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