Ulladulla Fundraising Workshop
Wednesday 23 November 2022
Twenty six community members gathered to explore the question “What can we learn together about fundraising for our future?” This workshop was identified by community organisations as a need in the IRCF roadmapping reviews earlier in 2022. This workshop was funded by the Australian Government, and hosted by Monique Carson, Carolyn Ardler from FRRR, Mel Geltch from Campfire Coop with Deb Samuels from FRRR. Uncle Vic Channell welcomed us to Country and stayed with us for the morning.
The ideas and insights that emerged during the day were harvested and are provided below.
What brought you here today?
Opening the day, we invited attendees to check in with ‘What brought you here today?’, with the responses summarised here:
- Connection, networking and advocacy
- Sharing resources and funds – collaboration
- How to promote and become sustainable
- To learn from others – new and more fundraising ideas – How can we get more people involved? – How do we diversify our funding?
- To share what we’ve learned – give back to community
- Share resources and funding opportunities
- Listen and learn how to support – hear obstacles and opportunities facing our communities
- Make further connections and build on the flow-on effects of the work in community
- A space to find solutions together
- Especially since the bushfires, committed to health of people and country. I want to bring the cultural aspects into community. How can I help?
- Been so busy I haven’t had a chance to connect with other organisations that we can help and that can support us.
- It’s beautiful to see a collaborative process over competition
This project received grant funding from the Australian Government and The Snow Foundation.
What have you seen or experienced that is working for fundraising right now?
In our first round of Café conversations, we uncovered what’s working now, given the changing nature of fundraising:
- Building online community
- Diversification
- Collaboration
- Questions / listening to what’s needed > then build or create
- Grants that are flexible, easy to apply for and easy to report – less admin work
- New relationships and contacts
- Social enterprise – more than just funds
- Relationship building / communicating. Putting it out there – Community Connect
- Reliance on grant funding – critical
- Localised events
- Community engagement
- Attract regular donors to have repeatable / sustainable funding
- Direct business contact local community based grant support ($ provided by local clubs etc)
- Capacity building eg: Canva and social media, strategic planning session
- Individuals that care for their community and organisations that can support those individuals
- Organisations that know their community and have their trust
- Publicity for community fundraising via local media / newsletters etc
Fundraising Stories
- Adam from StoryFest: connecting to tell stories. He shared how they had applied to the Australian Cultural Fund for DGR status, and received FRRR funds for a marketing strategy. They have just launched their Community Fund – focussing this next year on the schools program – to expand and make it free. The Community Fund allows them to run campaigns within it.
- Janis Gordon shared that Shoalhaven City Council community grants are now open
- More stories from other IRCF communities on the IRCF Hub.
What else is needed or missing in your fundraising?
We uncovered what else is needed or missing from our fundraising in round 2 of our Cafe Conversations.
- More local community focus
- Central alliance connection or group (Community Connect)
- Resources / funding to promote charities and NFPs
- Flexibility of grant provider
- People power – volunteers giving time and commitment
- Admin support
- No culture of philanthropy
- Skills and knowledge
- Database of skills (human library)
- Help writing grants
- Succession planning
- Internal communication – member support and engagement
- External communication – need, existence, opportunity
- Having process and systems in place for long-term sustainability
Where do you want to focus your energy now?
In round 3, we spoke our intentions, and made some offers and requests to help grow our collective capacity for fundraising that’s worth doing:
- Helen, Living Connected: Improving government grants processes (less overheads)
- Lions Club Ulladulla Milton & FAB Markets: Identifying where help is really needed
- Melissa, Independence Ulladulla: Keep connecting and sharing
- Bryan Smith, National Emergency Management Agency: Listen, support, deliver
- Vic Channell, Garawanga Mirida Murramarang Country: offer cultural education and practices
- Monique, Community Connect: Living Book – a container, local stories of the community
- Alasdair Stratton, Vinnies: Strengthen relationships – plant seeds to grow
- Nicki, Noah’s: Collaboration, discussion, shared ideas
- Adam, StoryFest: Supporting and empowering the Committee
- Janis, SCC: Simplifying funding applications and execution
- Annie, Safe Waters CC: Opening, funding, more visibility for the Highway Shelter. Networking
- Haley, Our Town: Money – sustainability, stable income, financially viable
- Lorraine, Ulladulla B P&C: Community and school – keep united, pool resources and skills
- Amy, The Deadly South: Connecting with others, share experiences and collaborate > unite!
- Matt, Community Connect: Raise profile of volunteers. Help to connect, share and collaborate
- Clifton Community Food Garden: Extending our activities to benefit the community generally
- Alice, Noah’s: Connecting with other people and groups to align services and projects
- Deb, FRRR: Strengthening capacity and connections > increasing ripples of awareness
- Julie: Replenish energy and boost wellbeing
- Community Connect: Brand awareness, continuation of funding and team skill building
- Milton Show Society: Succession plan – upskill current members, find new members, volunteers
- Tracy, Milton P&C: Future proofing – Succession planning and skills / processes
- Succession plan: revenue, upskilling current members, attracting new members
- Milton Ulladulla FHS: Energy on member and volunteer involvement
Principles for fundraising that is worth doing.
During the workshop and conversations, we collected some principles for fundraising that’s worth doing:
| Take the long view – invest time and effort now for future return | Build trust and relationship with your community – “friend-raising” |
| Connect your strengths for collective fundraising | Diversify your income |
| Collaboration – working with others | Use technology to enable communities of interest |
| Listen to what the community needs – know your community | Embrace diverse perspectives |
| Stand up and be proud | Take care of our people |
| Be relevant and culturally aware with activities | Work with conflict and failure |
| Be brave |
Closing the Day
As a check out, we asked people to speak who they wanted to connect with next. There was a diverse range of intended connections and a marketplace of asks and offers! Here’s more of what some shared:
- The growth of the IRCF program shows us who is in our backyard. This allows us to be a community
- Looking forward to learning and hearing more from you all
- Groups need to focus more on publicity and sharing stories
- Big thanks to FRRR for their ongoing support!
- There are a lot of people doing good things – knowing who and what is happening is what community is about
