I got an email from someone I gave some free advice to the other week on how he might get funding for his art project. I try not to spend too much time giving out free advice but the feedback is always nice:

Much appreciate the time taken to do this for sure!, i’ll let you know how things go and keep in touch, amazing information, i would never have known all this!. wow..

Now – the information I gave him (as he was not in the West Midlands region that I know best) was mostly googled and and found on the net. However I know that most people find the funding system so daunting that you do need to know where to start – you can’t just google ‘music funding’ or something like that and expect to get what you need.

People are always asking me for tips on gaining funding and if I will help them by applying for them. Well I don’t mind giving tips – but I tend to turn down opportunities to ‘fundraise’ for people and I’ll explain why below – but I thought it might be worth putting all those tips I usually give in one place as more people might find them useful – so here goes:

(When I talk about funding I’m talking about public funding, trusts and foundations and maybe occasionally sponsorship. If your project is properly commercial – then you should have the confidence to get a loan or find people to invest who expect a financial return. The kind of funding I know about expects some kind of public benefits or outcomes…)

Clare’s approach to finding funding:

1) Know what you want to do and be sure that it is great, stands out in some way and has some sort of public benefit

2) Be clear about why you want to do it and why you can’t do it commercially or with your own funds

3) Do a bit of research (its not that hard) about the kind of main funding bodies that deal with your sector/kind of project

For example: typical places to start if you are an arts or creative organisation might be:

• Your local authority – most have an arts and/or creative industries officer or team.
• The Arts Council – look at their website – find your local office and find the contact details of the officers
• Business Link
• Regional Development Agencies
• UKTI
• Trusts and Foundations
• Sponsors

In the case of all the above – there is a way to behave:

• read their website if they have one
• email them
• try to meet them  if you can and talk to them about what they do and listen (do this before you ask for money)
• Invite the individuals involved to things you are involved in and/or send them regular updates about what you do and success stories

Many people only talk to these bodies when they have crisis or when they want money. Don’t do that if you can help it! Get to know them – understand the agendas they have and need to work to and tell them about your work (but don’t bore them!). Remember – getting funding is about delivering some sort of public agenda – if you get it right you can achieve what you want and deliver that agenda.

The worst projects are often those designed simply to get money to deliver the public agendas only. The best ones are born out of great ideas that can be reasonably easily matched to a public agenda…

Then when you have your idea and you have a sense who might best fund it – go back and talk to them about your ideas and ask for ideas about applying. Most organisations are only too happy to talk to you – and if you’ve built up a relationship to start with you’ll find it easier to get a meeting when you need one.

When writing your application:

1) act on any advice you’ve been given verbally or in any guidance notes (don’t start until you’ve read these and digested them!).

2) Try, if you can, to write the application yourself. There are a few very good fundraiser type consultants out there – but not many. For smaller projects you are better writing it yourself so that your enthusiasm and knowledge of the project can shine off the page. Rarely is someone else as passionate about the project as you – so do it yourself is best in my view.

3) Don’t straight jacket your language by making it too technical or trying to use ‘funder speak’. Write as you would when you talk to someone in a meeting and enthuse about your project while all the time backing up your claims and ideas with examples of your knowledge and experience. But take time to spell check it and keep it clear – the people reading this stuff are only human and will be put off by a badly written application.

4) Don’t assume they know anything. Even if you’ve told the people involved everything about you and you know that they understand your work and its importance – don’t assume everyone reading or assessing it will know all that… Also, don’t assume they know other people you refer to or the significance of your sector or approach. Be obvious. But only talk about the things that are relevant to the application. Don’t blather on about your life story or vaguely working with a famous person 10 years ago – keep it to the point!

5) Don’t be subtle about the benefits of your project. Even if it seems obvious to you that running music workshops with young people will teach them certain musical skills – make sure you say it in the application!

6) Ask someone in the organisation if they are willing to comment on a draft application (many people are) as this will help your confidence and the quality of the final application.

7) Finally tick all the boxes they ask for, jump through the hoops, add any necessary appendices and get it in on time (if there is a deadline) or it will bounce straight back to you!

These are just my key tips. I’ll add to this post if I think of more. People can add other thoughts in the comments too if I’ve missed anything – hope it helps!

People have been asking me about the basic rules to Ramadan – here is a fun guide put together by the BBC.

Here.

Is here!

On the BBC Website – here.

Ok, so most of you will have picked up from my endless twittering that I’m fasting for Ramadan as an experiment for BBC West Midlands. They have asked me to try fasting for the first week of Ramadan (22nd – 29th August) to see how a non-Muslim gets on and I have to blog each day about my experience. They have had Muslims blogging in past years and this year they wanted to try a new perspective!

I’ve explained on the BBC Blog page why I’m doing this so you can check it out there – they are also putting up my radio interviews on the site so you can listen to those and see how I get on. I’m expecting it to get more interesting as the week goes on the hunger pangs kick in!

Also – I’m going to twitter constantly (what’s new I hear you cry!) and I’m going to go to some of the late night meals with local Muslim families. I’m really lucky to have a really global network of Muslim friends and colleagues who will be egging me on. For example Marwa Soudi from Egypt was the person who suggested to me in June that I should consider fasting for the mental challenges and Halim Karam from Morroco has been recording some simple prayers for me to recite around the opening and closing of the fast.

I know most of my Birmingham friends think I’m mad and I expect to be taunted by Mars Bars – but I’m going to do my best to be strong! Wish me luck and follow me on the BBC website.

Happy Ramadan!

Just a very quick post to encourage you to join the Facebook group to support the Rainbow Pub in Digbeth Birmingham. If you know it – you will know that they have developed an excellent music programme and really added to the Digbeth and Birmingham music scene in recent years. The Facebook group puts their case well – so you read that and join the group… please?

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=215693995444#/group.php?gid=215693995444

Well I’ve only been here a few hours. But in that time, I’ve meet people from Qatar, Palestine, Yemen and Greece and started already to have conversations that will change the way I see the world forever. I have a few photos and videos – but they will have to wait until tomorrow. But I have had some very interesting chats with people involved in the Athens Olympics – and it is fair to say that the issues we face in the UK in the lead up to 2012 are similar to those felt all over the world – wherever the Olympics are held. It was encouraging and in some ways heartening to hear about how other countries cope in the lead up, during and after holding an Olympic Games.

Doha is a very beautiful city with lots of obvious promise and building works going on across the city that I imagine will make it a place to visit again and again.

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited by Rich Batsford to a gig he was involved in called Musituality. It was a multi artist, multi faith concert involving the medatitive piano compositions of Rich Batsford and performances by St Mary’s Schola, St Mary’s Church in Moseley and Islamic ensemble Aa’shiq al-Rasul. There was also VJing from Chromatouch or Leon Trimble (an old school mate of mine who I hadn’t seen for years until about 18 months ago!).

The setting of the show was St Philips Cathedral in Birmingham which was in itself a very powerful venue in which to place this programme. The atmosphere as you walked into the Cathedral was fantastic – it was full of people of all ages, families, couples and literally every age group. I was wondering just how many of these people had been to Birmingham Cathedral before, I suspect not many.

It was great to hear Rich playing his piano pieces and with a bit of explanation too. St Mary’s Schola did a wide ranging set but I think they were let down by the sound system and balance and dynamic contrast was problematic – but I run a choir I guess I’m being critical. It thought they were great in their final piece when the textures and dynamics shone out.

The second half featured Aa’shiq al-Rasul who I’ve never heard before but I’m sure I’ll hear again because I thought they were great. They are a nasheed group that perform traditional and contemporary nasheeds in a range of languages ranging form  English, Arabic, Urdu and Punjabi. They also play percussion and on this occasion they had the audience singing along too. They certainly whipped the full Cathedral audience into a frenzy at times with a combination of great singing and charisma.

Well done to all involved – I thought it was a great achievement – and I look forward to seeing what you do next.

I’m going to Doha in Qatar next week for the Silatech Conference:

“British Council in collaboration with the Qatari Students Network & Silatech is pleased to announce the exciting opportunity for youth to participate in the Silatech Workshop Summit in collaboration with British Council and Qatari Student Network on 6, 7 & 8 June 2009 in Doha, Qatar. This distinctive, high profile and progressive event will undoubtedly trigger a significant step to enhance the role of youth in the Middle East and North Africa as well as to increase the involvement of young Arab entrepreneurs in tackling the issues of employment and under employment that plague the Arab World.”

As you can see – a pretty big topic but the idea is that young entrepreneurs from the Middle East and North Africa will look at how they can actively tackle youth unemployment in their countries and there is a scattering of people from the UK (myself included) to bring our own experiences into the mix.

I will be taking in my extensive experience of the community arts sector and how arts activities can inspire and transform young people and I have more examples than I can remember (I’m hoping that they will be useful – I’m guessing I wouldn’t have been invited otherwise).

But I’m keen to get other people’s views on this, namely:

- what practical impact/influence can young entrepreneurs have on unemployment in their countries?

- how can it go beyond being role models and offering placements?

- does it always need money – or are there more creative ways to bring young people out of unemployment?

OK – I know a big topic – I’m not expecting essays (but do point me to them if you like) and I don’t expect our experiences here in the UK can always be transferable. Thoughts and/or anecdotes on the back of a postcard or on a comment gratefully received!