Our fundraising projects

Impactful combines decades of nonprofit fundraising, marketing and campaigning experience in Ireland and the UK, empowering social change through philanthropy.

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LauraLynn's mission is to provide a Community of Care that delivers evidence-based, personalised services to children with palliative care needs, complex care needs and complex disabilities, while also providing family support services and a home to our residents where quality-of-life is paramount.

01.

LauraLynn - Fundraising Review, Five Year Strategy, Implementation Plan

  • The challenge was to examine the capacity of the organisation to build a growth funding model that would enable LauraLynn deliver on their ambitious organisational strategy in a sustainable way.

  • We held one to one meetings to gain insights from members of the fundraising, marcomms, and leadership teams, CEO, board, corporate supporters and philanthropy funders. We facilitated workshops, playing back insights, encouraging forward thinking, and enabling the team to vision the future, the possibilities, and the enables of success. We analysed financial information, storytelling, impact reports, org structure, external environment, and peers across the sector.

  • We produced an interim and final report, step by step implementation plans and identified the investment required for growth. The strategy outlined a clear path for the fundraising team to grow income by deepening relationships with existing supporters, developing an organisation wide culture of giving and overcoming key challenges. We worked closely with the CEO, board and leadership team aligning the funding strategy development process to the wider org strategy. 

  • Sarah Meagher, Head of Fundraising, LauraLynn Children’s Hospice:

    “The service provided was superb from start to finish, the process was clear from the outset and executed with great professionalism and commercial nous. Sinead and Rachel were forensic in their investigations which ensured a thorough understanding of our organisational needs. They went way beyond what was required from a time and effort perspective to deliver a first-class strategy for us with all aspects covered and explained. They were always on hand to answer any questions that arose from members of the team, and were always flexible and engaging in their manner and approach.

    All stakeholders contributed to building the strategy, so it feels like it has come from within. Our board, CEO, leadership team and fundraising team were really impressed with the depth of knowledge, consideration for our cause and expertise provided. The new strategy builds on our existing strengths with a focus on engagement and retention and provides clear actions and timelines for implementation across the team. In summary, they were a total joy to work with, and I couldn’t recommend the services higher. “

    Kerry McLaverty, CEO, LauraLynn’s Children’s Charity:

    “The depth and wealth of experience and strategic thinking provided was immense and deeply appreciated by our board, leadership team, and wider stakeholders. This was matched with professionalism, flexibility, compassion for our cause and a real interest in the impact we are striving to achieve. I couldn’t recommend the services highly enough.”

DEBRA Ireland is a national Irish charity, established to provide support services, research and advocacy to patients and families living with the debilitating skin condition epidermolysis bullosa (EB).

02.

Debra Ireland - Fundraising Review, Five Year Strategy, Implementation Plan

  • The challenge was to examine the capacity of the organisation to build a sustainable funding model that would enable Debra Ireland deliver on the ambitious organisational strategy to invest further in care, advocacy and research that will end the pain of EB.

  • Over a 12-week period we held one-to-one meetings with members of the fundraising, comms, advocacy, research and leadership teams, CEO, corporate supporters, and philanthropy funders. We facilitated one workshops, playing back insights, encouraging forward thinking, and enabling the team to vision the future for patients and families living with EB and the enablers of fundraising success. We analysed financial information, storytelling, impact reports, organisation structure, external environment, and peers across the sector. We produced an interim and final report, implementation plans and identified the investment required for fundraising to succeed.

  • The new strategy addressed issues of income stagnation, income sustainability and capacity gaps by concentrating and investing resources in a diversified and sustainable income base shifting the focus from transactional once off funding to the development of strategic and sustainable partnerships in the corporate, trust & foundation and major gift space followed by a future investment in regular giving.

    Following on from the initial project we were asked to support the philanthropy team and CEO through coaching, case for support development, prospect research alongside philanthropy planning and execution.

  • Michelle Reynolds, (former) Head of Fundraising & Marketing, Debra Ireland:

    “I cannot thank you both enough for the incredible investment, support, and direction you have given to me and to DEBRA in the last few months. During our last team meeting we discussed the extraordinary and hugely impactful work you have done with and for us during our time working together. I always felt that we were in such safe and experienced hands, and your compassion for our cause and genuine drive and desire to achieve impact for DEBRA was so apparent. Thank you both so much”.

Sightsavers is an international non-governmental organisation that works with partners in developing countries to treat and prevent avoidable blindness and promote equality for people with visual impairments and other disabilities.

03.

Sightsavers Ireland – Corporate Fundraising Review, Strategy, and Implementation

  • The challenge was to research the organisations capacity to grow income in the Irish market through corporate fundraising and strategic partnerships, income from this channel had been in slow decline and transactional in nature.

  • This project involved a comprehensive internal and external review of corporate fundraising by Sightsavers and the INGO sector in Ireland with insights gained from individuals across the organisation, existing and prospective corporate supporters, leading philanthropic bodies, and peers within the sector. An interim report was developed with key recommendations for stakeholder input prior to moving towards a final report and implementation plan.

  • A three-year corporate fundraising strategy and implementation plan containing key performance indicators, milestones and case for support aligned to SDG goals and the organisation’s overall strategy.

DEBRA Ireland is a national Irish charity, established to provide support services, research and advocacy to patients and families living with the debilitating skin condition epidermolysis bullosa (EB).

04.

Debra Ireland - Interim Philanthropy Leadership, Mentoring and CEO Advisory

  • The organisation was without a fundraising director during a critical time and had ambitious goals in the philanthropy space.

  • The project involved taking on a four-month philanthropy leadership role, working with the executive team and CEO to strengthen storytelling for philanthropic funders, identify opportunities for new and funding, deepen existing relationships, strengthen restricted income processes, manage risk and develop philanthropic reporting tools whilst coaching and mentoring the corporate and philanthropy manager.

  • Multiyear funding secured, major donations secured, annual philanthropic plans produced, calendar of engagement opportunities developed. Annual target surpassed.

  • Paddy Galsworthy, Corporate & Philanthropy Manager, Debra Ireland :

    “Sinéad worked with me to develop a practical supporter engagement plan for my existing donor base and identify and cultivate new opportunities for funding. We strengthened our case for support materials, built funder impact reports and developed internal reporting templates.

    In essence, Sinead helped me see, and realise, the potential across our entire donor base. My ambition and confidence in what I could achieve went up. It’s no surprise to me that six months on I have had my most successful year in fundraising”.

Pieta is the national organisation supporting people in suicidal distress and engaging in self-harm. Darkness into Light is the organisation's flagship awareness and fundraising campaign supported by over 200 fundraising committees and 10,000 event volunteers.

05.

Pieta - Darkness into Light – Interim Campaign Director

  • Pieta had a gap at fundraising director level at a critical time when the nation was nervous about returning to in person events for the very first-time post Covid and needed team, sponsor, campaign, and stakeholder leadership.

  • Supporter behaviour analysis, campaign marketing leadership, sponsor relationship management, national and international committee leadership, risk management and mitigation, board, and CEO communications.

  • The first post Covid Darkness into Light campaign was delivered, attracting 115,000 participants who raised awareness of suicide and self-harm and €4.5m in funding for the organisation.

  • Elaine Austin, (former) CEO Pieta:

    “She is a highly capable, experienced, and inspiring leader. Sinead is big picture thinker, she is strategic, proactive, confident, professional, and inclusive. Sinead is also an excellent communicator, can bring people with her on the journey and can manage stakeholders at all levels inside and outside the organisation. She is open, positive, consultative and an expert in her field. Sinead is also focused, pragmatic and has high integrity. I really enjoyed working with Sinead and I hugely appreciated Sinead ‘s time, energy, knowledge, expertise and focus while she was at Pieta.”

Cork Simon Community works in solidarity with men and women who are homeless in Cork, offering housing and support in their journey back to independent living. The organisation promotes a socially just society and campaigns for a society without homelessness. The Community works to a set of six core values: Community, Diversity, Social Justice, Voluntarism, Commitment to Care and Inclusion.

06.

Cork Simon Community - Mentoring & Implementation

  • Cork Simon Community have an ambitious organisational strategy and fundraising strategy to meet the funding needs of the organisation. Translating that overall strategy into actionable and implementable steps was proving challenging for some team members.

  • This twelve-week project involved providing a blend of mentoring and practical hands-on support to move from the strategy stage to implementation and action.

  • Practical support included the development of implementation plans, skills and capability gap analysis, resourcing plans and role descriptions, identification of outsourcing opportunities and key performance indicators, development of engagement plans, new campaign development scenario plans, workflow improvements and a bespoke strategic corporate partnerships approach. Mentoring focused on identifying challenges and opportunities, developing strategies to overcome obstacles, prioritisation of opportunities based on ROI and toolkits to support moving forward.

  • Kerry McMahon, Head of Community and Corporate, Cork Simon Communities:

    “Sinéad gave me the confidence, support and practical tools I needed to develop a strategic growth plan for my area. We selected key priorities to focus our time on, questioned and discussed ideas and developed new models and implementation plans. We looked at the challenges I face in my role and built strategies to overcome them. Sinéad's approach was curious, creative, flexible and fun , it gave me access to a wealth of experience and expertise that has helped strengthen my approach to fundraising and will stay with me into the future.”

LauraLynn's mission is to provide a Community of Care that delivers evidence-based, personalised services to children with palliative care needs, complex care needs and complex disabilities, while also providing family support services and a home to our residents where quality-of-life is paramount.

07.

LauraLynn - New Fundraising Campaign Development

  • The challenge was to bring members of the fundraising, marketing communications, and operations teams together to facilitate the development of a new fundraising campaign idea to launch within 12 weeks.

  • This was facilitated through a workshop style approach, drawing on ideas from the LauraLynn team matched with elements of some of Ireland and the UK’s most successful campaigns. Outcomes of the workshop were captured and played back to the team.

  • The initial workshop was followed up with detailed project implementation plans, outline budgets and funding models enabling the team to move forward at speed and put plans into action. Very quicky the project team was formed, a cross functional working group was established to keep all stakeholders informed, a location was identified and the case for support developed.