Setting yourself up for fundraising success
Funding is of course central to running rare disease charities and being able to execute projects and provide the best support possible to rare disease communities. Many rare disease organisations depend on community fundraising to run their projects and sustain them. However, due to covid-19, community fundraising has effectively stopped which has left many of the organisations and charities that we support with gaps in funding that need to be filled.
With this in mind, from the 4th to the 6th of May 2020, we ran a three day online workshop focusing on the theme of ‘setting yourself up for fundraising success,’ with the ultimate aim of providing expertise in how to transition patient group funding away from community fundraising to applying to grants and foundations and accessing corporate funding. This was also a new experience for the Findacure team as it was our first time running a workshop online and via Zoom, so we definitely learned lots of new things alongside the attendees! The sessions were accompanied by homework which was set for the attendees, with the aim of making the lessons learnt in the sessions practical and applicable to patient organisations in reality.
The main topics covered were:
Day one: Identifying fundraising opportunities
Day two: Writing a successful fundraising application
Day three: Navigating corporate grants and sponsorship


Laura Thompson-Harper, Fundraising manager, Findacure
Rick Thompson, CEO, Findacure
Lindsay Harrod, the FSI
Rick Thompson, CEO, Findacure
Shirlene Badger, Patient advocacy, Illumina