Life Education Centres West Midlands

LEC WM is a regional charity based in Birmingham, specialising in delivering health and drug education to primary school children, their parents and carers.

In 2004 we were asked to help develop revenue support from trusts and foundations, in order to broaden LEC's income stream, generate core funding and reduce the pressure on existing income from local government bodies and schools. The charity also had a number of projects ripe for development, but which needed additional funding to turn them into actions.

After establishing new recording systems for monitoring and researching trusts and foundations, we went on to develop a 3-year fundraising strategy. We were then retained further to develop a bid to the Parenting Fund, resulting in a grant of just under £100,000. We prepared a second bid in 2006, resulting in a second grant of over £170,000. This is in addition to income from trusts of around £165,000 to date, making £435,000 in total. This funding has been raised by our consultant Maxine Barlow.

Our work at LEC is very hands on, enabling us to respond quickly to the funding needs of the charity and contribute to developing ideas, whether they are for fundraising or more generally.

We have built a productive partnership with LEC, where results have made a concrete impact on the work and its future direction. The charity has also achieved a greater degree of stability and sustainability.

Manager, Sybille Finnegan says: "Wootton George Consulting has provided a very professional and adaptable service, where concrete results have had a major impact on the direction of our work."

Wootton George Director Simon George says: "This is a good example of a Fundraising Placement working really well for a client. It has also delivered excellent value for money for LEC, which is why they continue to retain us."