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Building a Garden for All: Strengthening Fundraising Strategy at Chelsea Physic Garden

15 April 2025

Challenge

Chelsea Physic Garden, a treasured cultural landmark in London, sought to expand its impact and ensure its long-term sustainability, through strengthening its fundraising strategy. With the goal of transforming into “A Garden for All,” the Garden aimed to broaden its outreach, engage diverse communities, and create a suitable environment for staff, visitors, and partners. However, fundraising efforts were still in the early stages, requiring a comprehensive fundraising strategy to galvanise support for the Masterplan campaign. The Garden needed to refine its campaign proposition, strengthen donor engagement, and foster a philanthropic culture to sustain fundraising beyond the building project.

Response

We started by getting to know the Garden’s goals and its current fundraising efforts, holding regular meetings with key staff from the Development team. These discussions helped us gain a clear understanding of the Garden’s vision.

Next, we evaluated the proposed Masterplan campaign in relation to current donor priorities, such as sustainability, health, wellbeing, EDI, education, and cultural placemaking. We refined the Case for Support and conducted interviews with 14 staff and trustees to gather their feedback. Based on their insights, we revised the Case for Support and tested it with 12 external stakeholders, including major donors, potential funders, beneficiaries, and contractors, to gauge its fundraising potential. We provided recommendations to enhance the final document’s impact.

Finally, we reviewed the existing donor list and identified opportunities to expand, develop, and diversify the funding pool. We created a detailed strategy for securing the necessary funding to support the project.

Impact

Our work directly enhanced Chelsea Physic Garden’s readiness for its upcoming fundraising campaign. Throughout the project, we:

  • Refined and tested the Case for Support with both internal and external audiences.
  • Assessed the likelihood and scale of new funding by reviewing existing donors and identifying new prospects capable of giving at the required levels.
  • Created a Campaign Gift Table across income streams, breaking down the total campaign target and identifying the number of prospects needed at each giving level.
  • Developed a detailed fundraising resourcing plan and outlined a comprehensive roadmap to drive success throughout the campaign.
  • Compiled our findings and recommendations into a thorough report, which was shared with the Director of Development and presented to the Board of Trustees to guide their next steps.
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