All change with fundraising

Whilst The Courtyard has been closed to our audiences, there’s been a number changes going on, and not just to the building itself.

The departure of Melanie Denning to work at the Royal National College marked the end of her long association as Fundraising Manager at The Courtyard.

The Fundraising Team now consists of Clare Wichbold and Olle Grove, who are currently working from home. Clare said: “At the moment, we are using the time to take stock and look at how we continue fundraising when we reopen The Courtyard. We are very lucky to have a number of funders who have held over their grants until later in the year, but I will soon be bidding to various trusts and foundations to start building revenue funding for future projects.”

She added “We are also finding that our audiences are very keen to get back, which is wonderful, but it’s clear that cash is now far less widespread as a result of the pandemic. We’ll be revisiting “on the spot” fundraising like raffles and bucket collections to see how we can make these still work, but also enabling people to give cashless donations in small ways as well as more substantial gifts”.

Clare has been in touch already with the individual donors for Transform the Yard, but is looking forward to meeting people at The Courtyard when the doors reopen.

Olle’s responsibilities still include looking after all of the business supporters.

The Courtyard has a loyal business support base and this has been shown by a very generous donation from Sequani Limited. A longer-standing Business Club member, Sequani chose to donate their latest year’s membership fee of just under £2500 to the Transform The Yard appeal while The Courtyard stayed closed through 2020.

Stephen Eckley, Managing Director at Sequani, said “Corporate and social responsibility always plays a significant part in the way we conduct our business. We are committed to supporting our local community and take part in a range of projects and initiatives on our doorstep. The Courtyard has such an important role in the local community and playing a small part in supporting not only a vibrant cultural centre in Herefordshire but also the important outreach work it undertakes is important to us.”

As well as managing corporate income, Olle will be taking on the claiming of Gift Aid from donations, which is a vital source of income, and the organising of The Courtyard’s fundraising events. Previous fundraising events included The Hey Yahs and the 20th Anniversary Gala Dinner.

Olle said “The support we have been shown by the business community has blown me away. I can’t wait to show our clients around the new spaces which could benefit them greatly. I’m also excited to carry on The Courtyard’s tradition of great fundraising events which will continue to showcase our fantastic organisation and the great work we do in the community.”

Olle will also look to strengthen bonds with other charitable organisations to see how we can all support each other as we move into the future.

Find out more about donating individually, supporting us as a business or joining one of our membership schemes.