British Science Association

The British Science Association is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Its mission is to transform the diversity and inclusivity of science; to reach under-served audiences, and increase the number of people who are actively engaged and involved in science.

(Photo by EJ Hersom)

The Brief

The British Science Association were struggling to recruit a permanent Trusts fundraiser and decided to use the opportunity to review their trusts fundraising and test the idea of bringing in external resource to fulfil this role.

Our response

We were commissioned in June 2017 and placed our consultant, Tamsin Haigh, into the role of interim trusts fundraiser on a one day a week basis. We helped the BSA to shape their trust fundraising strategy by analysing the previous ten years of applications and success rates to identify which projects were most attractive to trust funders. We also encouraged them to identify and prioritise funders where relationships existed with trustees or could be nurtured at this level.

We worked with the Senior Management Team to build a Theory of Change model, corresponding to their refreshed vision and mission, and developed this into a Case for Support for trust funders.

We identified and developed a weighted pipeline of funders, approached high-level funders for strategic meetings (currently underway); and submitted multiple applications of varying amounts.

Our work with the BSA continued after this initial phase, including delivering the Case for Support, a small grant towards their education programmes, an invitation to re-apply for a six-figure grant in 2018, and work on a major Wellcome Trust application with the team.