Lowry granted Biffa award to upgrade Quays theatre
By Emma Smallwood
I'm the Development Manager for Philanthropy and have been at Lowry for almost 13 years. I began as the Development Team admin assistant and in that time have learnt everything I know about fundraising and development. It's a very varied sector, from individual supporters, to big corporate partnerships to fundraising galas to bucket shaking, but my particular focus is on fundraising through grant-making trust and foundations.
A trust or foundation is an organisation (some are very small family trusts, some are high-profile like Children in Need, the Garfield Weston Foundation) which exists to give grants to registered charities (like Lowry) to carry out projects and their day-to-day activities. Each trust has a set of priorities they want to support and are passionate about, this could be children and young people, the arts, animals, the environment, healthcare - the list goes on. My job is to apply to these organisations and make a really good case for support - telling them why they should support our work, and the amazing difference we makes to our communities.
When we're successful, I then have to manage that relationship, through reporting and updating them on the project and its outcomes, inviting them to events and making sure we credit and thank them in the right way. I apply for project costs (to fund a very specific project with certain outcomes) general running costs, and capital costs - which are physical 'things'. Two of the most recent examples are the seating refurbishments by the Wolfson Foundation (in the Lyric Theatre) and Biffa Award (the Quays Theatre). The video above shows the wider impact of work like this!
I really enjoy what I do. I find the process of writing really creative especially adapting my writing to match different requirements; whether they want 100 words or 1000, changing my tone and style to match the funder, using video and images to enhance bids where I can. Its been an amazing way for me to really get to grips with so many of the projects our teams deliver. I feel really close to the impact of that work, and reporting back to funders and sharing these outcomes with them is so rewarding. I also love the feeling of problem-solving and match-making. Sometimes I have to really dig around to find new funders whose criteria match our work and profile, and it's very satisfying finding a new opportunity or discovering a new pairing between a trust and the work we do here. It really is a eureka moment! Of course the best feeling is securing a grant - to know that I've been able to really get across how important and life-changing our projects are, and to enable projects to happen which couldn't otherwise is just the best!
It's a challenging climate for fundraising at the moment, and I'm finding that often funders are over-subscribed or have changed their priorities in response to shifting challenges and issues in society. So every grant we do secure at the moment, however big or small means the world to us, and means we can keep doing what we do. This applies to all fundraising opportunities here, and we are so grateful for every penny. There are lots of ways to support us, including making direct donations and joining our well-established and hugely popular Supporter Scheme, which gives people and companies the chance to get closer to what we do, and see how their support makes a difference.
To find out more, visit the donate page, we'd love to hear from you!