Dear Aunt Agony

Our group has struggled to find funding ever since it started. I keep putting in more and more of my own money to pay bills but I can't keep doing this indefinitely. What should I do?

Skint of Sunnyhill

Dear Skint

Stop! Never subsidise a voluntary group from your own pocket. It presents a false picture of the group's financial position and merely delays the day when some hard decisions have to be taken.

Of course when you start a group you want it to be successful and you may put a little of your own money in to kick-start it or else decide not to claim for some expenses you've incurred. But the test of any new group is how soon it can become financially viable.

To do this you need to develop a fundraising strategy. If there's a genuine need for your group you will get funding. It may not be easy and it will certainly require a lot of persistence but you'll get it. If, however, despite all your efforts, no one will fund you it may be necessary to rethink what exactly you're trying to do.

Funders will usually give you feedback on why they decline funding applications and if the same reasons keep cropping up you need to take notice of them. It may be that you're duplicating another group's activities or your plans are just unrealistic. Perhaps you're trying to expand too fast. Don't keep on flogging a dead horse, hoping that one funder will see things differently from all the rest. Approach it in a different way, taking on board the feedback you've had. Or ultimately accept that now may not be the right time or place for such a group and wind it up.

Likewise, don't keep soaking the same people for donations all the time. There is such a thing as donation fatigue and if your main fundraising activities consist of holding coffee mornings and raffles where the same group of people are putting their hands in their pockets time and time again, you'll eventually wear out their generosity. Think wider - apply for grants or fundraise from the general public rather than just a small circle of loyal supporters.

Funding is a test of the viability of a group, so unless your name is Rockefeller and you have bottomless pockets, don't indulge your pet project by continually subsidising it. Think of it in terms of a business - you wouldn't keep pouring your own money into a business that was clearly failing, would you? (Well, alright, maybe football clubs are the exception to this rule!) If it's not viable, stop before you go bankrupt. If you don't, the only person you'll be fooling is yourself.

(from Network News, Mar/Apr 2004)

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