Village Hall Barham Bid Writing and Community Consultation

We began working with the Committee of Village Hall, Barham, Kent in early 2013. They were seeking to raise substantial funds to redevelop their community building, having tried unsuccessfully to make an application to the Big Lottery Fund, they turned to our fundraising experts for help. Steph Prentis acted as lead Senior Consultant for Charity Fundraising Ltd.

The scope of the project included;-

• Side extension to enable the kitchen to become an integral part of the main hall
• Front extension to enhance the visual appearance and create drop in facilities
• Shop extension to expand the retail space and safeguard its long-term future
• Conference room to provide a meeting facility for local groups/external services

Over the course of the year, we provided a range of guidance and support to Village Hall Barham, support which covered the following areas:

• Community consultation – we developed the questionnaires and provided guidance on running the consultation;
• Developing the Stage Two bid – we worked with the client to develop the Stage Two application;
• Developing the Stage Three application – we supported the client in developing their business plan and other associated documents;
• Fundraising mentoring and guidance – we acted as a fundraising mentor to the client on an on-going and ad-hoc basis

This work was very successful. The Big Lottery Fund awarded Village Hall Barham a total of £580,000 to pay for the development of a new community building designed and equipped to provide much needed services for local people living in a rural area in Kent.

“Steph has been absolutely brilliant, she explained everything and steered us through the whole process and made it work for us. The work of the team at Charity Fundraising Ltd exceeded our expectations, we could not have done it without you.” Simon Cavalier, Barham Village Hall