We asked Jane Bishop, of North Norfolk Community Transport about her experience of working with Felton Fundraising over the last 30 years, this is what she had to say:
How long have you been working with Felton Fundraising?
North Norfolk Community Transport has been working with Felton Fundraising since 2018.
What have you most valued about your partnership with Felton Fundraising?
The time and money they save us by researching suitable grants and foundations to approach for support. For a small charity like ours it would be a full time job to research all this information without their help. They offer expert advice on sources of income and also understand the legislative framework around fundraising.
What have you been able to achieve because of the partnership?
Fundraising research is a hugely time consuming process and there would be an additional cost to the charity if we had to employ someone to do this for us. They may not have the experience and expertise that a consultancy provides. We are heavily reliant on grants and foundations for the charity to survive, so it is no exaggeration to say that Felton has kept North Norfolk Community Transport in a position to operate.
In 2024 we helped over a thousand people without transport reach the shops, medical appointments, friends, family and any other destination which would have been otherwise denied to them. We have enabled people to remain living independent lives in their own homes, and helped them combat loneliness and isolation. We use a social value toolkit, designed by Deloitte, and this indicates the work we do can be ascribed as saving society £294,000 over the past year.
Describe your experience of working with Felton Fundraising
Emma is our main contact at Felton, and she is an absolute pleasure to work with. She responds quickly to questions and requests and is extremely pro-active in seeking support for us.
An example of this was the recent purchase we were able to make of a brand new electric minibus. We had the opportunity to obtain a £50,000 government grant for the vehicle, but we could only buy the bus if we were able to find match funding in a 10 week window. We gave Emma an extremely tight deadline to find us some funders we could approach to solicit grants. The grant funds were so well matched to our criteria by Emma, that the success rate was 100% and we were able to purchase our first electric minibus.
The materials prepared by Felton for us look extremely professional and have enabled us to achieve a successful proportion of responses to the trusts and foundations we have approached.
If you yourself are looking for fundraising support and feel training and mentoring could benefit your team, get in touch by calling 01362 667052 or email info@feltonfundraising.co.uk.