Fundraising

Building sustainable income with purpose and confidence

Funding challenges are nothing new for charities and social enterprises – but the landscape is changing faster than ever, particularly with the continued and accelerating squeeze on public sector funding.

At Almond Tree Consulting, we help organisations adapt and strengthen their fundraising approach, creating strategies and plans that are practical, realistic and sustainable. Our advice blends insight and hands-on experience, helping you make confident decisions that align income generation with your mission and values.

Why Fundraising Strategy Matters

Fundraising works best when it’s embedded in your purpose, culture and values - not bolted on when funds run low.

A strong fundraising strategy gives your organisation the confidence to plan ahead. It helps you:

  • Balance ambition with sustainability.

  • Identify realistic opportunities and manage risk.

  • Build the case for investment or partnership.

  • Strengthen governance oversight of income generation.

  • Increase trust and transparency with funders and donors.

How We Help

We provide independent, expert support across all aspects of fundraising strategy and delivery.

We help you focus on what matters most – realistic goals, measurable progress, and a strategy that genuinely fits your organisation.

Common challenges we help address

  • Heavy reliance on one or two funding sources.

  • Bid writing that isn’t achieving results.

  • Weak alignment between fundraising and strategy.

  • Limited capacity or confidence within the team.

  • Unclear performance measures or reporting.

  • Fundraising and income-generation strategy – assessing current income streams and identifying viable opportunities for diversification or growth.

  • Trusts, foundations and statutory funding – specialist bid writing or reviewing and support for pipeline development to improve success rates.

  • Corporate partnerships and sponsorships – aligning your offer with partner motivations and social impact goals.

  • Individual giving and membership schemes – designing approaches that engage supporters and build loyalty.

  • Fundraising reviews and audits – providing external perspective on performance and potential.

  • Implementation and project support – translating plans into delivery.

Whether you’re seeking a few thousand pounds from family trusts or tendering for contracts worth hundreds of thousands or millions, we’ll help you focus effort where it matters most.

Our Approach

Review

Understand where you are now and what’s working.

Refine

Identify achievable routes to growth and resilience.

Reinforce

Build capability and systems to sustain results over time.

We provide independent, calm support that helps leaders keep perspective - and stay focused on mission and people throughout the process.

Experience and expertise you can trust

Julian Lomas, our Director is a member of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, and holds the Diploma in Fundraising Management. Over his career, he has helped to raise almost £250m for charities and social enterprises.  Almond Tree Consulting is registered with the Fundraising Regulator and committed to the highest standards in fundraising.

  • "Julian helped us to focus on prospective grant organisations and he drew up example grant applications for us to use with major and smaller funders."

    “We used Julian as a consultant to help us create a fundraising strategy. As a small charity working in the arts sector and looking for significant capital funding to construct a building, it was a challenge for us to create a compelling case for grant support and to target funders whose priorities aligned with our cause. Using his extensive knowledge of the charity funding environment, Julian helped us to focus on prospective grant organisations and he drew up example grant applications for us to use with major and smaller funders. We were able to secure 90% of the budget funds from 30 successful grant applications. I have no doubt that we would still be a long way from our goal if we had not benefited from Julian’s advice and expertise.”

    – Fred Harrison, Amersham Band -