From start up to £40k

Are you looking to set up a Community Interest Company? Fran is a founder and Director of Equine Partners CiC. Fran has shared her fundraising success story ‘From start up to £40k’ to inspire, motivate and inform others who are on their community project journey.

‘I have owned horses for many years and became interested in how to use horses Therapeutically with Children and Families. As a qualified Social Worker I already had skills, experience and qualifications in working with children and families. I attended some specialist Equine Therapy training and as I saw the possibilities my daughter and I began to dream of a community project. We spoke with a range of different organisations and key local people about our idea which confirmed a real need for this type of project. A range of professional people with a variety of skills came forward to offer us support. We decided to start a Community Interest Company to see if it would be possible turn our dreams into reality. All this was in 2011 and the rest is, as they say, history.

Looking after a herd of horses, paying insurance and providing adequate facilities all have a cost. We could not possibly do this from our own personal resources and so began to think about needing to fund raise. I found this very daunting at first, having never attempted anything like it before, and I would have said that it is not where my talents lie. Thankfully we were introduced to Gemma Kingsman founder of a not for profit fundraising organisation. It is entirely due to her that the project has developed to the stage it is at now. She helped us get ‘Funder Ready’ by supporting us to create and collate all the documents we would need to produce a successful funding application. Gemma provided a Funding Mentor service which supported us to create stock phrases and paragraphs explaining clearly what it is we do and generally showing us how to approach writing a funding bid. She also helped us get a budget organised and be realistic about what we needed there were lots of things that we had not thought of! She also helped us write a business plan, providing us with a great template to help us collect our thoughts. Thanks to her help we are, after two and a half years at the point we expected to be at after five years. We have two part time paid staff and will soon be looking at employing further staff or increasing hours to give us full time employees. The project is going from strength to strength and we are able to provide a service for those that need it irrespective of their financial situation. We have received funding from a wide range of organisations. It covers the horse’s upkeep, salaries, equipment costs, the rent on our premises, refreshments for our volunteers and other visitors. In total we have received over £40,000 in funding.’

Need help with getting Funder Ready ? See our services page for more information (insert link)

For more information about Frans project please visit http://www.equine-partners.co.uk/

For information on setting up a Community Interest Company (CiC) https://www.gov.uk/set-up-a-social-enterprise

Author Fran Hibbard of Equine Partners CiC

Editor Gemma Kingsman Funding Mentor and Founder of Consultaid CiC.