Bid Writing Blues

There is growing pressure for charities and social enterprises to become non-grant dependent and to generate income from selling products and services that are related to their primary mission. This means that they must operate like a charity, spend considerable time writing funding bids and operate like a (restricted) business. Thin and stretching come to mind.

Writing funding bids is a full time mine field. Each funder has specific criteria and it is easy to fall into the trap of morphing into something unlike the original organisation to meet the funders' specifications. I have seen some organisations completely switch identities just to secure funding. Not only that, they end up spending much of their working life filling in forms. Big organisations hire professional bid writers who are highly skilled and experienced and are much more likely to be successful at securing funding.

The ratio of applicants to pots of money is said to be something like 50 to 1 (I have heard all kinds of statistics banded about and I guess it would be hard to be precise on this). It is a very competitive field, you need thick skin and an ability to pick yourself up again and again.

It is hardly surprising that many organisations are getting really creative in their thinking and looking to the internet to generate income. I am particularly fascinated by some of the clever use of (free) social networking strategies. For instance, last weekend a campaign was instigated by Beat Cancer Everywhere, a site that raises money for breast cancer. They set a Guiness World Record for the largest number of tweets, facebook mentions and other social network messages and they raised thousands of pounds through pay per mention donations.

I notice that there is an increasing trend to teach third sector organisations to raise money online. There are a number of courses available exploring various aspects of internet marketing. One such course is being held in London in November by the Directory of Social Change.

"Introducing an exciting new national training event for everyone working in charity sector writing, publications, design, photography, marketing and more..."

They are aiming to help people improve their "Googleability".

Internet marketing does offer solutions to exhausted third sector workers. There is potential to generate automated or turn-key streams of income and to provide the world with decent and reliable information in niche markets. However, it is also a very competitive marketplace and if third sector newbies want to be successful, they will have to learn the ins and outs of internet marketing and be committed to consistency. It is easier to lose time and money on the internet than it is to make it.  It takes a long time to learn about internet marketing, and there is definitely a call for a systematic course that runs over a period of time.  One day is not enough.  The other option is to hire a seasoned internet marketeer. 

Having said that, anything can happen online, and I do think that it is more possible than ever for small organisations to raise big money with a dash of creativity, lateral thinking and yet more graft and diversity!