Why I Joined Fund Gloucestershire
As we prepare to launch Fund Gloucestershire, I have found myself reflecting on the slightly unusual path that brought me to this point, and on why improving access to funding in Gloucestershire matters so much to me.
Over the past few years, working in the charity sector has shown me how difficult it can be for small organisations to secure funding, and how much time and energy the process can take away from their core purpose.
I came relatively late in my career to the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector. I spent the first 25 years of my working life in government roles, followed by an intense seven years as Chief of Staff in the US defence sector, working across offices in Europe. Moving into the role of CEO of a small Gloucestershire food charity in mid-life was refreshing and challenging in equal measure.
When I joined Gloucester-based cookery education charity Wiggly as CEO in mid-2023, I faced a steep learning curve. Although the detail of the role was new to me, I was able to draw on my previous experience of leadership, problem-solving, communications and organisational change. Even so, I had to build a new local network from scratch and learn quickly how to run and sustain a charity in a difficult operating environment.
At the same time, I relished being back in Gloucestershire after several years of hectic international business travel. It was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with my community and contribute to local impact in a much more direct way.
From the outset, there was a great deal to learn. We redefined Wiggly’s vision and values, rebuilt its profile in the county after the pandemic, developed new partnerships and reviewed the services we provided. Every week brought new experiences and insights.
"Of all the challenges I faced, however, securing the funding needed to sustain our work was by far the hardest."
Of all the challenges I faced, however, securing the funding needed to sustain our work was by far the hardest. Having previously worked in large organisations with substantial support and infrastructure, I had never experienced the direct and personal pressure of being responsible forfinding the money needed to protect my team’s jobs. Nor had I previously had to make difficult choices about which services we could afford to provide for the people we supported.
As a result, I spent a great deal of my time thinking about fundraising, reading about fundraising and, of course, actually fundraising. I explored every avenue I could find, from the traditional charity fundraising event - which I soon discovered was difficult to reconcile with a small operational team that needed to focus on delivering services - to applying for local and national grants, and almost everything in between.
As I gradually gained experience of applying for grants of different shapes and sizes, I learned that there was no common process. Some large national funders invited applicants to make their case through a relatively free-form narrative, guided by broad headings. Others, whether national charitable trusts or local public-sector funders, required highly structured forms with tight word limits and detailed, sometimes overlapping, questions.
Even information I regarded as fairly standard - what Wiggly did, who we supported and the difference our work made - had to be edited and reshaped each time to suit different formats, lengths and tones.
There were occasions when I questioned whether the time required to complete an application was proportionate or reasonable for a grant worth only a few hundred pounds. But as the leader of a small charity working hard to remain financially sustainable, I did not feel in a position to disregard an opportunity simply because the process was demanding. If we were eligible for funding, I generally had to get my head down and apply, however time-consuming or complicated the application might be.
Over the course of a couple of years, Wiggly’s annual income tripled. I was proud of what we achieved, but I also recognised that it came at a cost. I had worked through dozens of different funding processes and spent a significant proportion of my time searching and applying for funds. Much of the funding was awarded for only a year at a time, which meant that, almost every autumn, the cycle began again.
The work did not end when the funding arrived. I was also responsible for reporting on the impact delivered by my team. I partly enjoyed this – it’s hard not to take joy from celebrating participants gaining confidence and independence through cooking - but it was yet another significantadministrative responsibility to fit into an already crowded workload.
As I found my way in the charity sector, I realised that my experience was far from exceptional. It was in fact much closer to the norm for leaders of small charities – and that is precisely the point.
"Small organisations across the sector are navigating a complex and demanding funding landscape. They are expected to build strong partnerships while often competing with those same partners for limited funding"
As I found my way in the charity sector, I realised that my experience was far from exceptional. It was in fact much closer to the norm for leaders of small charities – and that is precisely the point. Small organisations across the sector are navigating a complex and demanding funding landscape. They are expected to build strong partnerships while often competing with those same partners for limited funding, and to pursue a wide range of opportunities, each with its own process and format, simply to keep valuable services running.
Through my experience at Wiggly, I have developed enormous respect for everyone who works so hard to create positive social and community change. I am committed to helping make the process of applying for funding simpler and more proportionate, so that more VCSE time and energy can be directed towards local impact.
As we prepare to launch the first funds on our platform, I am very grateful to be working alongside my Co-Director, Sally Byng, and to be part of a mission that resonates so personally with me. The VCSE sector will doubtless remain complex, overstretched and under-resourced, but our hope is that, over time, Fund Gloucestershire can make a meaningful difference to applicants and funders alike, enabling both sides of the funding relationship to spend more time focusing on impact and less time on administration.