Arts & community fundraising – useful resources

Thinking about fundraising for an arts or community project? Maybe you’re new to fundraising, or looking to improve your skills & understanding? Check out this collection of useful resources to get you started…


Fundraising Identifying The Need - Rachel Dobbs - CC BY NC SA

In “Identifying The Need”, I explore how to work out how your project meets a set of otherwise unmet needs. This is particularly useful (essential, really!) when clarifying the problem or issue you want to address with your project, and is helpful when identifying how to pitch your project to potential arts or community funders.


Fundraising Setting Clear Aims & Objectives - Rachel Dobbs - CC BY NC SA

In “Set Clear Aims & Objectives”, I cover how to work out what you (really) want to achieve through your project and how to break down your aims into achievable objectives. This is particularly useful when working out the shape of your project, and working out how you’ll be able to evaluate it (to figure out whether your project really does what you want it to).


Fundraising StoryTellingCanvas

In “Creating A Fundraising Story Canvas”, professional fundraiser Heather Thomas explains how to work through your project idea and tell the story of your project in a way that will be attractive to potential funders. This overview also introduces the idea of a Fundraising Story Canvas (a re-working of the familiar Business Model Canvas) which is a great tool to use to work out how you will explain your project to others.


Fundraising ACECheatsheet

The ACE Cheatsheet gives a straightforward overview of the questions required to complete Arts Council England Grants For The Arts online application form – 2.5K+ downloads.


Quick start crowdfunding beginners guide

If you are new to crowdfunding, or considering fundraising through platforms like Kickstarter or Crowdfunder, this quick start guide is a must!! It gives lots of links to useful resources, advice and sources of information to get you started with planning a crowdfunding project.


Maybe you have also found other excellent fundraising resources I should share here? Or other areas involved in fundraising that I have missed?  Please let me know in the comments below, or tweet me @RachelDobbs1


If you find these resources useful, let me know via Instagram – @RachelDobbs1. All of the resources I produce are available to download for FREE, but if you’d like to contribute to my future projects, say thank you or just do something nice for a fellow creative practitioner, feel free to donate by clicking the button below…


Rachel Dobbs is an artist and educator & one half of artist collaboration LOW PROFILE. Rachel works on a range of arts and education projects, has a long-term interest in creative approaches to community development and runs workshops, teaching & training sessions for a range of formal & informal groups including students, arts practitioners and communities – contact me for more details.

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