Cancer Research, British Heart Foundation, Oxfam—what do they all have in common? They are all well known charities.

But just like your organisation, they all started somewhere with a passion, a cause, and a small pot of money to get their vision out of their head and into the world.

It’s unlikely that people will know who you are, what you do and be ready to offer long-lasting support when you’re first starting a new venture. If you do already have these things, count yourself very lucky!

In business, we start small and work to grow what we are doing in manageable steps. We usually don’t have an endless supply of funds, but along the way we are met with opportunities to help push us in the right direction. For charities, these opportunities often come in the form of grants.

Standard Life Foundation,  Wooden Spoon, The Black Fund, Grants Online or even  GOV UK are just a few places that help charities to make a difference by giving a lump sum—often specifically to support business development, marketing or communications.

It can be daunting to know what to do with that money. You might be worrying about your return on investment (ROI), or asking yourself ‘what’s the right way to use this money?’.

That’s where we come in. We don’t want you to feel overwhelmed by the choices, but feel equipped to make the right ones—with or without a grant.

Here's our quick guide to what you could do, while you're waiting for your grant applications to come back:

1. Creating a clear brand style for marketing

You might already know this or have a brand in place, but before you skip over this point, ask yourself one thing:

Do you have a logo or a brand?

We know that sounds like a trick question, but having a logo doesn’t necessarily mean the same as having a brand.

A brand will mean that when you go to create a new fundraising flyer or a social media post, you don’t wonder what colours to use or what font goes with the logo or how to format the text. Your brand should give you a set of rules to follow, making it easy to pull together your content.

The brand will carry through all of your marketing materials—your website, annual reports, fundraising and money boxes, social media templates, posters—giving everything a consistent feel that your supporters will easily recognise.

2. Using engaging ways to communicate

When was the last time you looked at your marketing and thought ‘that’s such a great new way to share what we do’?

As a charity, we know keeping your stakeholders on board is really important. It’s key that your supporters return each year, but also that they see the amazing work you’re doing and how it’s making a difference.

We can get stuck in a rut, not knowing how to shout about what we do. But that’s okay, here are some other ways you can communicate to those supporting you and those on the verge of doing so…

An annual report can be a dull informational document, or it can be an exciting, branded story that tells them about the lives you’ve changed, the impact you have made, and your stats for the year. The NHS CT have just released theirs and we are big fans!

Or what about an animation? Animations are a fantastic way of telling a story of someone you have impacted or a life that has been changed. Or how about telling your story—about what you do and why. There are multiple ways to use an animation to reach the unreached and they’ve proven very effective at evoking emotion, bringing people in on your journey and gaining support.

Lastly, how about creating branded merchandise to give away or sell at fundraising events? You can even brand your entire event, from photo frames, to banners and more—let people know why they’re there and who they’re supporting.

3. Having somewhere to send your supporters

Now that you have some fantastic ways to reach people, you need somewhere you can capture their interest and their details.

This is where your website comes in. You may have set this up at the very beginning of your charity and it has served you well up to this point. But have you stopped and taken a look at it to see if it’s still accurately representing your charity? If someone, with no idea who you were, gave it a look, would it be clear what you do, why you do it and how you help?

Hopefully your answers to these questions are a resounding ‘YES!’

But if not, don’t panic. There are plenty of options when it comes to improving, evolving or re-doing your website, and we’d love to help.

Whether it’s enabling quick online donations, storing and sharing archives of content from years gone by in an easy-to-use system, or having a clear brand message. The ultimate aim is to have a website that looks, sounds and feels like you.

Whatever your situation, if you’re looking for a chat to see how you can step up your game and raise your profile, we’d love to help.