Our Purpose

Our Purpose

To accelerate bold meaningful change, assisting BOP communities and the environment to flourish.

Support For Funding Forums A Worthwhile Investment

7 JULY 2014

 

Not-for-profit organisations such as churches, service groups and sport clubs have to be business-savvy these days.

Knowing how to apply for – and get – funding is crucial in order to carry out their work in the community.

But what do you do if you haven’t got top level business skills or experience?

Funding forums such as the Rotorua Funding Expo are an ideal way to upskill community volunteers and help them succeed financially.

More than just dollars and cents

The idea is to bring different funding bodies together to show community groups what financial support is available, and how to successfully apply for grants.

But it’s also an opportunity to pass on other vital skills and knowledge.

“Funding is more than just giving money. It’s about helping people think and work smarter,” says Rotorua District Council’s community projects officer, Carole Parker.

Parker, along with BayTrust’s community development advisor, Terri Eggleton, Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust and a number of other agencies, jointly organized last February’s biennial expo in Rotorua where 140 people spent the day learning how to secure funding and improve their overall operation.

“Part of the funding forum is we have a panel of funders (including BayTrust) who explain to people the process of applying for a grant. But this year we also had a lot of guest speakers talking about how to run an organization.”

Workshops were held on a number of topics including how to run meetings effectively, how to evaluate your operation, social networking, social enterprise and employment law.

BayTrust support

“Terri was a big help in arranging guest speakers. Her awareness, experience and knowledge of what’s happening in not-for-profits was vital. She knew what their needs were and we were able to shape our programme accordingly,” Carole says.

BayTrust also contributed $2000 towards the cost of running the Funding Expo so people could attend for free.

“The key to our event’s success was the fact it was free of charge. Not-for-profits usually don’t have funding available for training so that made a big difference in encouraging people to attend.”

In addition to helping organize and subsidise the event, BayTrust was also able to promote Rotorua’s Funding Expo through its extensive database by letting not-for-profit groups know that it was on.

“We had very positive feedback from groups who came,” Carole says. “Some of the people who attended have since gone on to attend full length workshops on the topics we covered, so they found the information very useful.”