Fundraising tips & advice for Community Climate Action Projects

SCCAN hosted a fundraising skillshare session on Wednesday 8th December 2021 with Phyllis Martin from TrufflePig Fundraising.  32 participants from all across Scotland heard Phyllis share her extensive experience of fundraising with small groups.  She provided many tips to help organisations navigate the often difficult tasks of fundraising.  

You can rewatch the video of the session here and access Phyllis’s slides here

After an introduction between the participants, Phyllis gave a small talk about small-scale community fundraising which was followed by a Q&A.  Many of our participants had questions about sources for funding and ideas for applications which Phyliss was able to advise with!  Phyliss also spoke about the impact of COP26 and Covid-19 on funding opportunities.  She advised that at least five grant applications needed for one success!

We then discussed a few potential sources for funding before splitting up into breakout rooms.  Each group discussed what projects they needed funding for, what they have done successfully in the past, and what they will take away from today’s session. 

Group 1 shared that using council statistics may be a great way to show funders the need for your project and Group 2 noted that being selective with your applications means you can find funders that are a great fit for your project. 

After the breakout rooms, we all came together to share the ideas each group had discussed. Phyliss gave more advice on application strategy and a reminder to not be disheartened when applications are declined. Thank you to Phyllis for all the helpful advice she gave!

See SCCAN’s Funding Guidance, the original detailed Funding Route Map by Alan Caldwell in 2013 and a short Funding Checklist edited by Joana Avi-Lorie.   See also the funding.scot directory  and  Glasgow Council Voluntary Sector Funding pages. 

You can access the full report with a list of funds and grants here.