Catch22

 

Background & Brief

Catch22 was formed in 2008 from the merger of Rainer and Crime Concern - that supports young people who find themselves in difficult situations. Like many charities, Catch22 has been under considerable pressure to widen its funding base in the light of reduced statutory funding - and corporate fundraising was identified as one potential growth area.

 

Peel were brought on board by the Head of Fundraising to review the charity’s approach to corporate fundraising, to determine the scope for developing more strategic and brand-led business partnerships and to support the charity’s sole corporate fundraiser with a programme of regular mentoring.

 

When we started working with Catch22, there was no corporate fundraising strategy, limited understanding internally about how to work with companies and a lack of compelling, emotive projects or engagement devices fit for a company audience. There was a general sense that the charity was underselling itself to businesses and was only scraping the surface of what might be possible.

 

Outcomes

In order to determine the scope for Catch22’s corporate fundraising and to plot a fresh direction, a strategic review was carried out over a three-month period.

 

This review involved a number of workshops, interviews and meetings with a range of Catch22 staff aimed at understanding the ‘bigger picture’, people's views of the existing corporate fundraising function and to hear from colleagues with commercial experience or specific ideas about how the charity should be engaging with companies.

 

The review addressed areas such as Catch22’s recent corporate fundraising activity and performance; the nature of existing partnerships; the corporate case for support; ‘packaging’ of charity projects; style/content of proposals; engagement mechanisms used; corporate supporter benefits and the main strengths and weaknesses of the existing approach and culture.

 

We proceeded to work with the fundraising team over a six-month period, acting as an on-going ‘sounding board’ and adviser; presenting the charity with a major review and strategic recommendations document and finally, with a top-line corporate fundraising strategy and tactical plan.

 

The then Head of Fundraising was very grateful for the support we provided:

 

“The latest project that I commissioned Andrew for was to prepare and deliver a Corporate Fundraising strategy. He produced an excellent and innovative document that I am using to enhance commercial partnership working. I will not hesitate to use Andrew again.”