Achievements to date - from 2008/09 to present

In our first three years we have managed to raise £2,043,500 in grants from charitable trusts and foundations, statutory funders and Lottery funders.

We have had 35 voluntary and community sector and 2 statutory sector clients. We have evaluated the quality and impact of 13 organisations and carried out 15 consultation exercises with stakeholders of organisations, including people with mental health problems, learning difficulties, and drug and alcohol users, to better understand the issues they face. We have created 12 bespoke fundraising strategies and produced 5 strategic reviews, evaluation and impact reports.

110 paid jobs for deprived individuals have been created through grants obtained for charities by our consultancy work.

Examples of our achievements:

• Secured three Transition Fund bids, totalling £176,000

• Helped secure £300,000 from Tudor Trust and Paul Hamlyn Foundation to fund an innovative mental health advocacy service for young people in Somerset

• Secured £30,000, with James acting in a voluntary capacity, from local trusts and councils to fund children’s play facilities near Ely

• Supported four Parish Councils to raise £150,000 to fund play facilities in rurally deprived locations across Cambridgeshire

• Completed a five-month interim management assignment, overseeing a user-led training and consultancy team for a national disability charity

• Secured £125,084 fromThe Big Lottery Fund to provide welfare benefits information and advice on an outreach basis to disabled people across Nottinghamshire

• Secured £9,700, on a pro-bono basis, for a local village youth club near Ely

• Evaluated services provided to 25 newly arrived migrant community members living in deprived Fenland

• Secured 28,000 from charitable trusts to establish a brand new social business in Lancashire, employing homeless individuals to establish and run a new window cleaning business

• Evaluated a Start Your Own Business Programme provided to 89 ex-homeless, unemployed and disadvantaged people living in East London

• Consulted 33 disabled young people living in Cambridgeshire to identify the issues they face in their lives and advised local agencies how best to respond

• Secured £95,115 from Investing in Communities Programme to develop a central IT infrastructure and 15 remote advice kiosks to provide information and advice for people living in rurally isolated locations in Cambridgeshire

• Provided evaluation and strategic planning for a national disability charity’s training and consultancy service

• Evaluated a stimulant service for drug users living in Essex

• Secured £68,308 from Third Sector Investment Programme to carry out organisational restructuring

• Consulted people with mental health difficulties and people with disabilities about their debt and welfare benefits issues

• Completed three organisational evaluations and impact reports for national disability charity, Speaking Up (now called VoiceAbility)

• Evaluated Prince’s Trust national business programmes for disadvantaged young people

• Secured £7,100 from Nationwide Foundation to set up rural outreach advice surgeries for older people in East Cambridgeshire

• Secured £20,000 from Lloyds TSB Foundation to provide debt and benefi ts advice to newly arrived migrant community members in Fenland

James has also become an approved Consultant for the Institute of Fundraising and a trustee of Charities Evaluation Services.