Ipswich Disabled Advice Bureau Fundraising, Strategic Development Consultancy and Mentoring

Ipswich DAB provides free and confidential advice, information, advocacy and services to individuals with disabilities and we aim to provide advice and information to organisations and agencies serving people with disabilities in Ipswich and the surrounding area.  They also work to improve statutory services, educate public opinion and co-operate with similar bodies.

Charity Fundraising Ltd started providing charity consultancy services to Ipswich DAB in December 2010 and we have undertaken Grant Funder Research, Bid Writing and Bid Reviews as well as working alongside Ipswich DAB to design new projects. These projects have predominantly focused on coping with change as a result of Government cuts and changes to the benefits system, with an emphasis on helping people to move forward with their lives.

As fundraising consultants, we have also offered advice and guidance on: managing staff and volunteers, website design and content, presentation of annual reports, networking with other organisations and publicity through media coverage. We have identified potential charity partnership opportunities and discussed the benefits and ways of implementation.

Charity Fundraising Ltd have helped to set up service user consultations including devising suitable questions and format for the consultation. As part of our charity consultancy, we have also discussed other monitoring and evaluating methods and helped to implement these within the organisation.

We have worked alongside Ipswich DAB management to identify skills gaps within the organisation and secured funding to enable staff to access suitable training to address these skill gaps.

Charity Fundraising Ltd has helped Ipswich DAB achieve £420,326 in grant funding to date from a range of trusts, foundations and BLF Reaching Communities.

“We have been very happy with the services we have received and have learnt a lot about fundraising. Issues such as how we market ourselves e.g our website, presentation of our annual accounts, using our AGM to celebrate our achievements, and networking, as well as looking at our work in terms of specific ‘projects’ or objectives, rather than categorising it all as core services had not really been on our radar previously. We certainly never considered them as being related to fundraising! The icing on the cake is that everyone is friendly and approachable and we could discuss and plan together, with our preferences for a particular course of action being a driving force.” Pat Ramsey, Manager