Three New Offers to Help You
Fundraise With Confidence

What would make you feel more confident in your fundraising?

We know times are tough and that those responsible for fundraising can feel like they’re carrying the weight of their organisation on their shoulders. With so much pressure you want to feel confident you’re making the right decisions and that you’re doing everything you can to maximise your chances of success.

That’s why we’ve introduced three new services designed to boost your fundraising confidence and ensure you’re on the right track:

Compelling and Builds Confidence

David is very knowledgeable and experienced, and draws on that to give real examples of his topic. The result is compelling, and builds confidence in the recipient.

Flexible and Approachable

David is a very knowledgeable, professional speaker who puts people instantly at ease with his friendly, approachable manner. He has always been very flexible, clearly explaining concepts in a way that is accessible and easy for all delegates to take away and apply to their own organisations.

MG 1

“I now feel more confident about asking.  After this course I will be more engaged with donors.”

Individuals 2

“I now have lots of relevant ideas about how to increase our donations and simple techniques I can pass onto other staff.”

Legacy 3

“Helped us to understand a lot of the terminology and process behind legacy giving which I had previously found confusing from my own research.”

Legacy 2

“I feel more motivated and confident to take the next stage in implementing a strategy for fundraising through legacies”

Grants 1

“I am completely new to writing grants, and was feeling very hesitant, but now feel like I can utilise my existing skills along with the new knowledge to complete quality applications.”

Engaging and Entertaining

A superb presenter – engaging, entertaining and not afraid to challenge us and ‘rattle the cage’ where necessary!

Friendly and Inclusive

I really enjoyed the friendly, inclusive nature of the training. David was really great at encouraging you to participate and made it feel like a safe space. I also thought the pacing was perfect – fast enough to not lose interest but ample time given to each exercise.

Always Inspiring

“David is a very engaging and knowledgeable speaker who clearly researches heavily around his already extensive experience. His sessions are always inspiring.”

Well Paced and Well Resourced

Great to have a speaker who deliverers well paced, well resourced training and who can draw on lots of different examples.

Ideas and Insight

“I’ve been raising grant applications for several years, and have had previous training in it, so I really wanted a ‘refresher’ and update. This turned out to be very much more than that – lots of revision, for sure, but plenty of new ideas and insights, a lot of which go back to the Planning to Fundraise session in September. Excellent value!”

Knowledgeable and Understandable

David is both highly knowledgeable and gifted in translating this in a way that is understandable. After the sessions I felt able to take the information and examples of good practice and use them to help my organisation.

Legacy 1

“Very helpful course. I feel more confident to lead a small project to introduce a legacy section on our website and associated activities to inform, promote and benefit from the new webpages.”

Grants 3

“I have gained skills in how to write better bids that i can take forward and use in my next fundraising efforts.”

Clear and Methodical

The speaker clearly knew his subject and delivered this in a clear methodical way. Lots of good insights into the subject. There was the right amount of interaction with the audience.

Insightful and Empowering

Absolutely brilliant! David was incredibly engaging and I think everyone around me felt inspired and motivated by his talk – really enjoyable. Bloody brilliant! So insightful and empowering.

An Expert In His Field

David is an expert in his field and is a very skilled communicator

MG 2

“Thank you – this has been one of the most helpful and positive sessions!”

Individual 1

“I really came away from the session feeling like I had new insight and felt very inspired.”

Challenged Perspectives

“It’s clear that David is an active practitioner in the field and knows the real time struggles of both funders and fundees. He came across as highly knowledgeable and engaging, offered some very useful advice and successfully challenged perspectives.”

MG 3

“Thanks to the course I now have increased confidence in pitching.”

Useful and Inspiring

Practical, specific advice around the mechanics of relationship & individual fundraising, combined with theory & examples. Really useful & inspiring!

Engaged throughout

“I was very interested in the content throughout. It was easy to understand and David was great at explaining the information, offering interesting supporting examples. I think it was a good combination of exercises and presenting that kept me engaged.”

Grants 2

“The session struck a good balance between top-level concepts and specific detail. Examples were used well to engage participants, facilitate useful discussion and get people thinking about strengths and weaknesses within this area of work. Subverting thinking to consider the objectives of the funder was a very insightful.”

Informative and Accessible

I always enjoy the Apollo Fundraising Training courses – very knowledgeable, informative and accessible

Legacy 4

“The session covered all the aspects I had hoped for and I feel able to promote the idea of legacy giving to the rest of the Board.”

The Art of Fundraising - Online Arts Fundraising Training Courses

Are you looking to build your fundraising skills? After 8+ years delivering fundraising training for other networks and sector support organisations (such as Museum Development networks, Theatres Trust and local CVS groups) we're now making our "engaging", "insightful" and "inspiring" training courses available to everybody.

All of our courses are designed specifically for arts, culture and heritage fundraisers. We draw on the latest research and best practice, case studies and examples from a wide range of cultural organisations and our vast experience of fundraising in the arts and culture sector to create courses that are practical and relevant.

Between January and February we'll be running our "The Art of Fundraising" series of online training workshops, covering grant fundraising, fundraising from audiences and visitors, major gift fundraising and legacies.

While developed as a series the workshops also work as standalone sessions. So, whether you book for one course or all four you'll leave with more insight, more confidence and more ideas that you can implement within your own organisation.

It was a pleasure to work with David on a couple of applications in 2023.  Over a couple of conversations and some brilliant editing he enormously improved what went on to be a successful application for project funding from Youth Music.

Proposal Review Service

Would you like to feel more confident in the funding proposals you're submitting? Our Proposal Review Service gives you the chance to get bespoke, honest, practical feedback on your grant applications before you click 'submit'. Drawing on our years of experience on both sides of the grant-making process, we've developed a number of exercises to test how easy it is for grant makers to read, understand and, ultimately, fund your proposal. Having reviewed your proposal we'll arrange a call to talk through our recommendations and discuss possible ways you could strengthen it.

Price: £150 for short proposals (1-3 pages), £300 for longer proposals (4-10 pages)

Fundraising Health Check

Useful and Practical

Thank you so much for this. It is a useful report and very practical for us – not always what you get from outside consultants. Great stuff!

More Donations!

Our donations are much higher following the work you did with us, and the team has a different mindset about how to ask.

Experience and Expertise

I don’t know how you’ve managed it, but you have brought out the confidence of the development team, and youve also been such a support to us all in this tricky period. Your experience and expertise are hugely impressive. How do you manage to understand an organisation so quickly? It’s such a skill!”

Creative and Achievable

David has a wealth of experience and gives really practical and creative advice. He really understands the pressures and challenges teams face in the sector, so his solutions are genuinely effective and achievable.

Informing Success

Thank you for the advice, guidance and very detailed Strategy. You’ve very much informed our thinking and pushed us to make decisions that are critical to the success of the scheme.

Insightful and Practical

I just wanted to say thanks so much for our consultation. I found your advice extremely insightful, helpful, and most importantly, practical! You left me with a great deal to think about and with some great action points to put into practice as soon as possible.

Exemplary

“David has been exemplary with his advice and support, from which we continue to benefit.”

Practical and Well Thought Out

I think the strategy is really great – it’s very practical and well thought out. And in contrast to other fundraising strategies I’ve seen consultants develop for me I can actually see us using it to develop our fundraising.

Sensible and Clear Recommendations

I just want to thank you for the high quality of the report you have produced for us. It contains just the right level of detail for us and I like the way it is presented – it is presented in a way that is very easy to read. You have made sensible recommendations for us and clearly set out the actions we need to take. Thank you!

Fundraising Health Check

How confident are you that your fundraising is on the right path and that everything is running as smoothly as it could?

Our Fundraising Health Check is an independent assessment of your fundraising activity. It’s designed to diagnose any underlying issues and risks in either your strategy or your implementation so you can move forward effectively, efficiently and with confidence.

Our Fundraising Health Check focuses on two key areas:

  • Your Strategy – Does your fundraising strategy represent the most effective and efficient way to achieve your goals?
  • Your Implementation – Do you have the resources, infrastructure, skills and internal processes required to turn your strategy into reality? Are there any barriers or blockages standing in your way?

At the end of the audit you'll receive a Diagnostics Report, outlining what’s working, what can be improved, and any foreseeable opportunities, risks and challenges on the horizon.

Price: from £2,450

Not what you're looking for?

These are just three of the services we offer to help arts, culture and heritage organisations fundraise with confidence. You can find more information about the full range of copywriting, strategic consultancy, training and support services we offer using the menu above. Alternatively, contact us using the form below and we'd be delighted to discuss how we can provide you and your organisation with a fundraising confidence boost.