Lime Green Consulting

With the current political climate presenting huge concerns over the future of the sector, being clear about our organisational values feels all the more important. Whether you've recently started following us, or whether you've followed us for some time, these principles underpin all of our work with charities and social enterprises. These values are everything to us and they're much more than just buzzwords 💚

"In all honesty, I'm tired of this argument that our sector has to stay out of politics. Most people acknowledge we're not just here to deal with symptoms and dole out sticking plasters...and when the game changes, the rules of engagement must too." 📢 Our latest blog by Director Mike Zywina takes on the current political reality - the alarming rise of the far right - and why the charity sector simply cannot afford to remain passive in the conversation. We don't have the answers, but let's at least start by talking. Find the full blog linked below 👇

It's time, it's time...for our first episode of A Dash of Lime! 🍋🟩 Today, Rachel Cross answers a question from Geraldine at Chew Valley Performing Arts (Valley Arts), how can we apply to multiple funders for the same project? To feature in future episodes, ask us your questions about fundraising, strategy and more via the form - down below!

As the current funding crisis takes its toll on small charities, it can be hard to know where to go for advice and information. How can we navigate a world of mass funding closures and extreme competition to keep our work going? What does success even look like any more? While there are no magic solutions, we can point you towards some brilliant people and resources to equip you with up-to-date insights and ideas: 💡 The List - Changes to Trust and Foundations in the UK, by Jo J.. Started in 2024 amid a surge of trusts and foundations announcing closures, pauses, changes, or restructures, this continuously updated spreadsheet keeps track of these current changes: https://lnkd.in/edd3ChJJ 💡 For an analysis of current grantmaking trends building on The List, read ‘On Golden Ponds’, a blog by Jo J. and Emma Collier: https://lnkd.in/eRtgwFnS   💡 You can also listen to a discussion about this on the For Impact podcast by Felicia Willow: https://lnkd.in/eKeSjW8w 💡 The excellent 2025 Trusts and Foundations Insight Survey by Gifted Philanthropy and Konna Beeson provides a host of headline findings about current application success rates, trends and challenges in trusts fundraising, as well as important takeaways to inform your current approach: https://lnkd.in/e6-eeUhn 💡 Keep an eye out for LarkOwl’s 2025 Fundraising ROI Survey, due for release in April (you can still participate until 28th Feb!) which will provide up-to-date figures for the average return on investment you can expect from different types of fundraising, including trusts & foundations - so important for making those big decisions about where to invest your precious resources: https://lnkd.in/etkSDZ2C 💡 Lime Green Consulting have a new feature where you can submit any question about trusts fundraising, with a few answered in the form of an explainer video every month: https://lnkd.in/evrN2z5V And finally, as you go looking for insights and tactics, remember that in a difficult funding landscape it's often best to resist the temptation to reinvent the wheel and keep doing the basics well. For trusts fundraising, that means: ✅ Maintaining a strong case for support that makes your work as clear and compelling as possible ✅ Careful prospect research to find & focus on the funders most likely to fund you ✅ Taking time & care to build strong relationships with funders, including through high quality grant reports & thank you letters ✅ Focusing on quality, not quantity, in your funding applications ✅ Emphasising your organisation's impact, first and always ✅ Always making your applications accessible and engaging, especially for frazzled funding officers reading hundreds each week

We are saddened and yet not surprised to learn some of these statistics. Thank you to the hardworking team at Fair Collective for shedding light on the cocktail of internal and external challenges taking their toll on our small charity leaders. We know the battle — and the solution — is far more complex than saying “look after yourself”. But talking about this is a start. For a collection of other sources of information, support and research on mental health in the charity sector, we’re linking our blog post on the topic in the comments. 💚

Good funder stewardship that builds respect and trust involves being honest, even if you don't have good news to share. Life happens, and things don't always go as planned. Any decent funder knows and understands this!

Have you left yourself enough dough raising time? 🤔 The similarities between trusts fundraising and making a pizza from scratch are endless, s our trusts fundraising Rachel Cross highlighted yesterday at Fundraising Everywhere's Grant Writing Accelerator! Many people new to trusts fundraising are surprised to learn that it can take an average of 6 months - sometimes longer - to see any return on a grant application after its been submitted. Many trusts are also run by volunteers, and some may only meet a few times a year to make decisions. Planning grant applications sufficiently ahead of when you're going to need the funding is essential. If you need the funding next month, applying to trusts is unlikely to be the right approach for your immediate need. Always check the specific funder's timeframes and make sure your project needs can fit within these parameters. If their timelines are not published publicly, try to find out by contacting them directly if possible. Both kinds of dough need sufficient raising time! 🍕 💷

The trusts and foundations landscape (and, indeed, the fundraising landscape in general) is becoming increasingly relational. This means that having tactics up your sleeves for cultivating invitation-only funders is an ever-more important string to your trusts and foundations bow. Our blog post from a few years ago gives you five key tactics for building relationships with closed funders that have stood the test of time - check it out below! 👇 https://lnkd.in/eWe6wCiN

It's tempting to think that sending more grant applications will lead you to more funding success, but evidence and experience shows that quantity actually rarely trumps quality. The 2025 Trusts and Foundations Insights Survey produced by Konna Beeson at Gifted Philanthropy provides a wealth of key data-driven takeaways on this topic and many other important variables in the current world of trusts and foundations fundraising. Some key headlines include: 👉 Almost 70% of fundraisers have seen a shrinking prospect list compared with previous years 👉 Drops in success rates based on the total number of applications sent 👉 Grant schemes capped at £5,000 are facing a disproportionately high volume of applications from across the sector 👉 Despite the fears of high competition, 58% of fundraisers expected their income to either grow, or stay the same in 2025 Read the full report or watch the webinar here: https://lnkd.in/e6-eeUhn With HUGE thanks to Konna and the Gifted Philanthropy team for this excellent piece of research! 🙌

Including stories and case studies in funding applications helps to bring your work to life and encourage human connection and empathy. But there's no quicker way to undo your good work than by replacing the name with a letter. Let's face it, it's never as moving to hear a story about how L became more confident, T secured their dream job or Q got healthier after taking up a new sport. Because L, T and Q don't sound like real people. Sometimes we don't have permission to use somebody's name or judge that it's important to protect their privacy. And that's more than ok. In that case, try using a different, unrelated, culturally-appropriate name instead and include a brief note explaining what you've done. Let's ditch the lettered people, and keep the humanity.