As with most fundraising decisions, knowing when to invest and what you need to invest in, requires careful thought. At the basic level you’ll want to know your numbers – how much is this going to cost me and what might the return on my investment be (if you want to read more about ROI take a look at this blog post). However, there are usually other questions you need to ask yourself so that you can make an informed decision about whether now is the right time to hire in a freelancer to help with your trust fundraising. Here are five scenarios when investing in a freelancer might be the right decision for you:

Ok, so first things first, if you DO call a Trust and they say don't apply because their next meeting is full up or they're not accepting applications, or you're not eligible to apply, then this is a GOOD THING! It saves your time in writing and sending the application so that you can focus on prospects who will accept your application. If you're not the type of organisation they would support then far better to know this up front than to spend time drafting your application.

If your staff are feeling pulled in multiple directions collecting endless types of data for multiple funders you need to get smart with your monitoring and evaluation.

I remember the long nights chained to my desk only too well – the dreaded funder return, due at the end of the month, with an annual report to be drafted and board papers to write. When I was a charity CEO it is what frequently kept me working until 11pm.

Do you think it takes you too long to write grant applications? Are you finding you’re spending hours and hours writing an application for a few thousand pounds? Yes, some grant application forms are longer than others, and it doesn’t always correlate to the amount of money you’re asking for. But here’s the thing – imagine if that was YOUR money you were giving away. Let’s say you’re writing a small application for £4k – I’d bet if that was your £4k you’d want some pretty decent information on who you were giving it to and what it was going to be spent on too! Luckily there are some key ways that you can speed up the application drafting process.

As a consultant I’m often asked what kind of return on investment you get from trust fundraising. Particularly if you’re at the beginning of your fundraising journey, trust fundraising can seem like a lot of effort. The hours spent researching prospects, shaping projects, building relationships and all before you even get around to crafting the perfectly worded, compelling application.

I’ve read and reviewed a lot of trust applications over the past two decades as a fundraiser and there are some words that just make me cringe when I read them. So I’ve put together a list of some of the best –words that to me seem overused, and don’t make much impact. And that’s not what we want when potential funders are reading our applications!

There’s no denying that trust fundraising is getting more and more competitive. With statutory funding cuts and new charities registering every day there are simply more charities competing for the same pots of money.

Grant administrators and trustees often have to sift through hundreds and hundreds of applications so how do you make sure yours is one of the ones that stands out from the crowd?

Looking for new prospects is an essential part of the trust fundraising process. We’ll assume for now that you’re already engaging with all your current funders, and you’ve identified your lapsed funders and have a plan of action in place for those too.