About - Straight Forward Funding Ltd

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STRAIGHT FORWARD FUNDING

ABOUT

LISA JAGGER

PREVIOUS CLIENTS

FACTS ABOUT LISA

My Vision

TAKING THE STRESS OUT OF GRANT FUNDING SO THAT YOU HAVE MORE TIME TO DO WHAT YOU DO BEST

Just in my own town alone, there are hundreds of sports clubs, charities, social enterprises and schools being driven forward by teams of dedicated people (and sometimes by individuals). People who go the extra mile, who give up massive amounts of time to make a difference. I bet most of them don’t think twice about doing that – whether its to run a sports club, a social enterprise, a food bank or whatever. They do it because they are passionate about what they do and what they want to achieve – and the difference it makes to people’s lives.

What makes these diverse organisations so great, are the people that drive them forwards.

People just like you.

It doesn’t matter if they are paid staff or volunteers, young or old, experienced, skilled or completely new to ‘the game’. What always shows through is their passion, their drive, their desire to make things better, to improve and to make a real impact upon the people that they in turn work with.

I’ve worked in and around communities for years, and I love every minute of it. (Even the tough, frustrating and simply hard work bits). I’ve been privileged enough (and still am) to work with many sports clubs, both amateur and professional; with charities, community groups, and schools.

I have worked in my professional Public Sector, and my Governing Body of Sport roles; I have enjoyed volunteering for community organisations, and more recently, I have worked on a freelance basis – giving me an exciting opportunity to fine tune my tried and tested approaches, and my experience of community and project development to bring in even more grant funding investment.

Although breaking away from my safe, salaried environment gave me more freedom to support a wider range of people – it still didn’t give me the capacity to work with all those people that were asking for help. Particularly those small, grass roots organisations that had little, if any funding in place. Knowing that I had the knowledge, the skills and the ability to make a difference to these groups (and thus their communities), but not having the capacity to do so was very frustrating.

I knew what I wanted to do
To help community focussed organisations get grant funding for the things they needed to do.
I knew why I wanted to do it
To take the stress out of grant funding so that you have more time to do what you do best – developing your vision.
It just took me a little longer to figure out a way how to do it!!
I persisted, I learned, I developed a vision, and I had absolutely no idea how to translate that into a reality! So I did what we all need to do sometimes – I invested in some help.

And finally, I created “Straight Forward Funding – The Membership”.

I have worked with

SOME OF THE ORGANISATIONS I HAVE SUPPORTED INCLUDE:

Facts about Lisa

Some interesting facts that you should know about me

I am a small grants specialist – given a choice, I would rather help 100 organisations to get a small grant – than help 1 organisation to get a big grant.
I hate to admit it, but I have over twenty years of experience preparing funding applications (obviously I wrote my first application when I was 3 years old….!)
I have helped dozens of schools, community groups, sports clubs and charities generate grant funding.
I love sport – Rugby League, Taekwondo and Climbing are ‘my thing’, and have helped me become the person I am today. There is nothing I find more satisfying than helping a grassroots club become better equipped to change people’s lives.
I also loved working in sport because it meant I could legitimately wear tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt to work 😊
I have moved house 32 times to date. Perhaps this is why community is so important to me now.
When I’m not working I love to spend time with my partner, our assortment of pets (Shadow, our Labrador, Princess, Pudding, Bella and Nutty – our cats!)
Climbing (bouldering) is currently my sport of first choice.

Taking the stress out of grant funding so that you have more time to do what you do best

Find out more about the membership programme

My Values

Approachable and supportive but most importantly realistic

Do you know how hard it is to write about yourself – to put into words why you think people value what you do, and convince people why they should work with you?

I can tell you – I find it really, really, really, hard!

Perhaps it is how we were brought up, to be modest, to not stand out, to not be the one putting your hand up and answering the questions all the time!

Perhaps it feels ‘big headed’.

Well, to be honest, I chickened out completely. I decided to write to my clients and asked them to do it for me. (And then I sat cringing waiting for their replies!)

But actually, in the end, it was a very powerful exercise. And it is an exercise I would recommend that you do too.

Ask your members, your service users, your customers. What is it about what you (or your organisation) do that they value. Why do they choose to use you/work with you, instead of the many other options available to them?

Because this will give you some real hard evidence for your future vision – and your future funding applications. (See, you haven’t even signed up yet and I’m giving you some tips!)

What surprised me even more, is that many of my clients expressed just how much they enjoyed doing this favour.

So, in their own words – this is what they said:

I would say that you are very methodical and detailed in your approach. You look at the whole picture - holistically - but also drill down into the detail. For example, when you were assisting with our Diversity Plan, you looked at the bigger picture of the make-up of our town, and what the definition of diversity might be and then provided a detailed plan for how to develop different aspects of our organisation.

What I particularly liked was the clarity of your plans, dividing areas into different sections and producing charts to demonstrate this. This makes for a more digestible document to show to our committee but also makes it easier to follow, measure and update. You helped me realise that these documents are not just a tick box activity but a really useful framework to take an organisation forward.

Walking in someone’s shoes - it’s what Lisa does. Lisa listens with care. She creates a warm, caring atmosphere which allows conversation to flow. Initially Lisa lets the story of the work to develop. She asks questions to find out about the details and to understand the context. Lisa has a sophisticated knowledge of a range of institutions, she understands how money works and the basis on which decisions are made. This shows in the questions asked. To be of service to her client, she walks in their shoes to find out exactly how she can be of service.

Lisa’s work ethic is ferocious. What she says… happens. She will respond to you swiftly clearly outlining what is going to happen next. She does not ‘over promise’, she freely acknowledges mistakes and makes amends.

Ethics… I trust Lisa completely. I could not say that about many companies or organisations I have worked with over many years. I know that if confidentiality is required, that is what I will get. I know if speed is needed things will be done. My integrity as a business is likened to Lisa’s and I am happy for that link. Working with programmes and in certain contexts this is vital. Lisa will also say no…if she is busy and cannot fit in a programme and give it her complete attention. She will make it known. She will not short-change a customer!

No cringing allowed. This is straight from the heart… The reasons I love to work with you include:

The fact that you have bags of tenacity, determination, motivation and drive. An awesome positive energy and a ’can-do’ attitude which is very infectious. An amazing ability to sift through vast amounts of info or ideas and emerge with a clear focus on the real heart of an issue. Superb understanding of people/different populations and groups/different organisations and use this understanding of diversity to match funding/enriching opportunities perfectly. Highly organised and great strategic thinker and planner. Ask the right questions at the right time to clarify clients thinking, which helps generate exciting and relevant projects.

Think of you as the ‘Funding Fairy’ who shakes a little magic where it’s needed! This is clearly not exhaustive, just a starter for ten…hope it helps.

You are friendly and approachable.
You explain things in an easy to understand way.
You break things down into manageable chunks.
You have a positive approach to every problem.
You always go above and beyond what is asked.
Things don’t feel like work.

The last thing I ever wanted to do was become that ‘corporate bid writer’.

I wanted to use my understanding of the challenges, barriers & limitations facing small & local organisations and help them

I want to be

Approachable & personable,
helpful, friendly &
warm

I aim to be

Understanding and patient that individuals and orgs don't always understand the funding landscape

I am

Willing to go the extra mile &
take time to understand
the client

I definitely want to be

A real person not a corporation

This is vital to me

Trustworthy and integrity

And the reason I called my business Straight Forward Funding is because I think it makes life easier if we all

Speak in plain English not jargon

So that's me, Lisa

Now its time for you to put your faith in me, and let me help you take that step forwards. Sign up to The Membership and let me help you, to take the stress out of grant funding so that you have more time to do what you do best.