Volunteer Fundraiser for creative mental health charity

What will you be doing?

Sound Minds delivers a timetable of group and individual arts activity and other projects that help to combat loneliness, provide purpose and extend artistic practice. Our Battersea studios house a vibrant and inclusive creative community with music rehearsal, tuition, recording, filmmaking, a visual art studio, and a choir. The charity takes its lead from the needs and aspirations of its service users and this is how our Canerows peer support services came about in 2008. Canerows now includes a one day per week user led drop in, post discharge peer support and a comprehensive ward visiting service. In April 2013 we became an Arts Council England funded National Portfolio Organisation which is allowing us to both increase our staff team and the scale of our arts provision. We have a busy year ahead to embed the new people and systems and deliver more sessions, workshops, gigs and exhibitions. We still however have a shortfall in our core funding and there is an urgent need to refurbish our Battersea studios and update our music production equipment. The volunteer fundraiser will work closely with our CEO and under the overall direction of our Trustees. We are looking for a highly experienced fundraiser who can steer us through the development of a detailed fundraising strategy. The person will be self-starting, have an extensive knowledge of funding opportunities, follow through to developing and completing applications, and advise on the delivery of fundraising events. We have a strong track record in raising funds from trusts and foundations but are are finding the current climate challenging. Our income from statutory bodies including Wandsworth Council and the NHS is relatively stable but we don’t however have wide experience of income generation from corporates. Crowd funding and events are also possible areas that we haven’t made use of to date.

What are we looking for?

Experience of leading on the development of fundraising strategies for voluntary sector organisations with evidence of success (essential). An extensive track record of delivering funding applications from trusts and foundations, and bid writing in the public sector (essential). Successful fundraising experience via donations and corporate sector sponsorship (essential). Significant experience of developing and delivering fundraising events (essential). Lived experience of mental ill health (desirable). A caring attitude towards people living with long term mental ill health and an understanding or how this role supports the needs of people with mental health issues (essential).  The minimum commitment is 3 months and 3 hours / week.

What difference will you make?

A successful volunteer fundraiser will help secure the organisation’s overall impact for the next three years of the strategic plan that we are working on. Sound Minds is in an exciting period of growth but there are still significant gaps both in terms of core funding but also around capacity in key staffing areas such as finance, communications and fundraising. A strong income development strategy and delivery would make a big difference to the medium term stability of the organisation. An immediate impact would be to update our studios. We have had feedback from our members, staff and trustees that our studios are becoming unfit for purpose due to the music equipment becoming worn out and out of date, and the general level of decoration is also poor. There is evidence that potential and existing members are going to other services which can offer more modern facilities. We have completed an initial needs assessment and income of £10,457 would allow us to redecorate and carpet our 3 production spaces and upgrade the core music equipment. In a year these facilities would be used by around 200 unique individuals with mental health problems. From the 2022 members’ questionnaire 100% of respondents rated their overall experience of Sound Minds services as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. 72% reported an improvement in their confidence through using our service and 80% reported their mental health had improved, with a similar proportion reporting that their lives have more of a sense of purpose.