This exciting project involved working with CARE a Community Interest Company serving Herefordshire’s Golden Valley. CARE already managed the local post office/shop and adjacent community cafe. CAREs main activity is the delivery of a range of social care-related outreach services for isolated/older/at-risk people in the area.

The GV Fitness Centre project was designed to help raise funds to cross-subsidise the CICs core activity by extending CAREs services through the development of the GV Fitness Centre, a new 20 station community gym. Heaward Solutions initially provided a bespoke funding report, then secured quotations for equipment, prepared grant applications, managed negotiations with social investment funds, prepared business and marketing plans, developed launch plans, helped with recruiting staff and developed operational policies and systems.

Since Launching the gym we have maintained a long term contract with CARE to provide management support and occasional bid writing services. As a result, we have helped CARE secure grants for organisational development work, volunteer development, a new ladies running group and the installation of AV equipment in the Café to let CARE develop community cinema and screen reminiscence related material to service users living with Dementia.

Working closely with Milton Keynes Council, a large network of local partners and Marketing Bi Design, we developed a 200-page full-colour bid to ACES Europe to secure the designation of MK as European City of Sport in 2020. Not only did the bid explain how MK met the award criteria in great detail but it also highlighted what a unique and exciting place MK really is. This dispelled the stereotyped view of MK around ‘concrete cows and roundabouts’ replacing this with a real understanding of its fascinating history, outstanding economic growth and its passion for sport, the arts and innovation. This bid was noted as one of the best the awards panel had ever received and ensured that MK received this prestigious international award.

The Trust manage a large reservoir near Leek in North Staffordshire on behalf of the Canals and Rivers Trust. In 2019 we supported the Trust a fantastic environmental and recreation charity, to identify potential funders and then submit a series of connected bids to charitable Trusts and Foundations. This was focused on helping to secure the funds needed to enable the delivery of exciting plans to build a new canoe store and launch a canoe/stand up paddle board hire and coaching programme at the Lake. Whilst delivery has been impacted by COVID-19 the store is now built, equipment purchased and the new canoe launch installed ready for activities to commence in earnest at Easter 2021. This project has not only helped the local canoe club but also provide visitors with new ways to enjoy the lake and the Trust a vital new income stream.

Since completion of this project, we have also supported the Trust to secure funds form Sport England to further develop physical activity provision on-site as well as securing a large grant from the Heritage Lottery to help the Trust weather the financial pressures that arose due to COVID-19 related restrictions.

Since Heaward Solutions launched in 2017 North Staffordshire youth football charity Ladsandads have been a regular client. This has led to the completion of several significant projects worth circa £200,000. These have included security improvements, a new toilet block, two new tractors and assorted specialist grounds maintenance equipment. These projects have helped the charity dramatically improve three of the five sites it manages across North Staffordshire and have positively impacted thousands of young peoples experience of sport. Many of these projects were funded from Landfill Tax Credits secured from a local waste management company who are keen to support local good causes. Others involved Football Foundation bids.

We have also helped Ladsandads secure significant sums from Sport England to assist several branches cover losses associated with the COVID-19 lockdown.

Over several months, we supported the Nene Park Trust a major environmental charity from Peterborough to identify potential sources of funding for a major indoor climbing wall project. We also helped submit bids to complete the investment needed for this exciting project to progress.

A key part of our work was an exercise to develop and deliver an effective strategy to secure sponsors. In doing so we were able to help the Trust define a clear sponsorship offer, create a high-quality online sponsorship brochure for their project, and support them in approaching potential sponsors. Once a potential sponsor was identified we then assisted Trust through the negotiation process. This lead to the Trust securing the commitment of a major European insurance company to provide a six-figure sum as part of a multi-year sponsorship deal.

In 2019 Heaward Solutions was asked to deliver a bespoke workshop as part of Table Tennis Englands (TTE) national conference. After discussion with TTE we developed a focused workshop designed to help clubs understand the many strategies available to them to generate income and how to best approach each of these. This was supported by a comprehensive handout that was distributed to all conference attendees. Feedback from the session was excellent and many clubs have gone on to use the information gained and become more sustainable.

In 2020 we were introduced to the Little Edi Foundation a fantastic Essex based charity who had pivoted during the COVID pandemic from delivering work in Romania to supporting struggling families nearer to home.

After their change in focus, Little Edi had quickly become overwhelmed by the level of need in their community and were looking for some help to scale up their UK based activity. Heaward Solutions started with preparing a bespoke funding report which identified a large number of funders who might be prepared to invest in Little Edi's work. We then provided high-quality one to one bid writing and fundraising training and support to a key volunteer. This has led to a series of bids being made that should help transform their capacity. Our next project with Little Edi is during 2021 to help them secure the funds needed to move out of the founders home into more suitable premises that will enable them to scale their work further.

Inspiring Active Communities is the brainchild of Eddie Ray CEO of Progressive Sports Limited a successful national sports coaching business. For many years Eddie had grown frustrated that the successful commercial model of Progressive Sports and similar providers was unable to meet the needs of many children and families who experienced a significant level of deprivation. After a chance introduction to Heaward Solutions in 2019 through a mutual contact, plans were quickly developed to form ‘Inspiring Active Communities’ a brand new national charity that would work to bring the benefits of sport and physical activity to some of the UK's most deprived communities. Initially, Heaward Solutions assisted with refining the scope for this exciting project and securing registration with the Charity Commission, following which we prepared a detailed bespoke funding report for IACs enthusiastic new trustees to identify potential funding opportunities and helped IAC secure its first grant to pilot its work in Staffordshire. We are now working to train IAC team members so that they can take on fundraising activity for IAC including preparing smaller funding bids in house and in this way broaden their reach.

A Fertile Heart is a unique project to develop and roll out a new curriculum for the delivery of Relationship, Health and Sex Education in a manner that reflects the values and beliefs of roman catholic families. Whilst a very comprehensive set of resources had already been developed when Heaward Solutions initially became involved, it was clear to Laurence Tunnicliffe the publisher of A Fertile Heart that further funding would be needed to take the initiative to the next level. This was especially important if it was to be rolled out further to catholic schools right across the UK. After extensive work to look at what structural options would best suit the project, it was decided that at least for now it should remain part of Laurence's business rather than transition to a charitable of social enterprise structure. But as external funding was required, Heaward Solutions recommended that crowdfunding offered a potential solution and was commissioned to design and deliver a campaign. After considerable work to identify the right messaging, produce an emotive campaign video and design a significant PR and marketing campaign for the project, the A Fertile Heart Crowdfunder ran in late 2020. Not only did this raise £10,000 in just 5 weeks but perhaps more significantly it also generated a huge amount of media attention in the mainstream and specialist press. These led to enquiries from across the UK and worldwide which have helped transform the reach of A Fertile Heart.