MMC Ltd

17/09/2026

5 things charity leaders can do to make Trust Fundraising more successful

Rosie shares her biggest takeaways from LarkOwl’s Trust Fundraising 2.0 training.

Successful trust fundraising isn’t the trust fundraiser’s job alone.

Charity leaders have a big role in creating the conditions for success.

1. Get clear on your charity's outcomes
Funders want to understand the difference their money will make. Be clear on what will change, for whom, and how you’ll know.

2. Map your networks against your funding pipeline
Sit down with your fundraiser and map your organisation’s networks against your funding pipeline.

3. Have a LinkedIn strategy
Don’t just have a presence. Share insight, learning and impact. Be intentional about who you want to reach. Engage with funders and partners through commenting on their posts.

4. Give your fundraiser access to the charity
Strong applications need good information. Give fundraisers access to programme teams, data, budgets, stories, learning and organisational plans.

5. Measure more than income
Work with your trust fundraiser to identify KPI's that are not just about the money raised. Consider measuring the quality of your funding pipeline (e.g. how many applications are warm) and number of funder relationships being built.

The question for charity leaders is:

Are we asking our trust fundraiser to raise more, or are we actively helping create the conditions that make raising more possible?

15/09/2026

Marsha will be returning to one of her favourite networking events this month, following a period of recovery from her recent operation.

She is looking forward to meeting up with regular attendees of the Newton Abbot Chamber on the 24th September.

14/09/2026

Thank you Become United for such a wonderful post, celebrating the partnership we made with you back in 2024. Rosie and I are delighted our help was so impactful and we are honoured to still be in touch, two years on!

All the best with your growth and future plans.

🏆 Charity of the Year 2024

A heartfelt thank you to Rosie, Marsha and the wider MMC Ltd team for your fantastic support of Become United. 💙

As a small and growing charity, having access to such a high level of expertise, guidance and coaching has been incredibly valuable to us. Your support has helped us think more strategically about our fundraising, organisational development and long-term sustainability.

Our Board of Trustees and the wider Become United team have truly appreciated the time, knowledge and genuine commitment you have shared with us.

Thank you MMC Ltd for believing in our work, investing your time in our development, and supporting us on our journey. We’re incredibly grateful for the partnership and everything you have done to help Become United grow. 🌱

14/09/2026

This September, Marsha will be working with local not for project organisation What’s Your Problem CIC in Torquay, delivering a one-off free confidence workshop for women based on Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway®. The session will introduce practical tools for understanding fear, moving beyond comfort zones and developing greater confidence.

“I love seeing that moment when someone starts to see themselves differently,” says Marsha. “Confidence isn’t about becoming a different person. Often, it’s about recognising the strengths that were already there and giving yourself permission to use them.”

10/09/2026

Rosie Reflects on… August

Last month, Marsha and I spent some valuable time working on the business rather than simply in it, thinking about how we support charities with their Trust Fundraising and where our time can make the biggest difference.

One statistic in particular made me stop and reflect.

For charities with an income of between £300k and £1m, those spending 20–30% of their Trust Fundraising time on research achieved a 44% success rate and higher income, compared with a 20% success rate and lower income for those spending less than 20% of their time on research. (Gifted Philanthropy, 2025)

At first, 20–30% can sound like a lot of time.

But when I think about my own work with clients, it actually feels about right. During September I'm going to audit my time to see whether that instinct is correct.

Research isn't separate from writing a strong funding application. It is part of the preparation that makes a strong funding application possible.

And for me, research means much more than sitting at a desk searching funding databases.

Yes, there is desk research: identifying potential funders, understanding their priorities and looking for the characteristics that suggest there could be a good fit.

Then comes qualification: looking critically at the pipeline and asking, how likely is this funder really to give? Just because a trust could fund an organisation doesn't necessarily mean it should be high on the priority list.

But perhaps the most interesting part is cultivation.

In my monthly meetings with charity leaders, we sometime explore potential connections to funders. I'm also excited to be developing a tool around this to use with our clients, helping charities get even more from those relationships and connections.

I’ll pick up the phone to a funder too, not to ask a question that could easily have been answered by reading their website, but to ask a specific question and have a useful conversation to shape the application.

And finally, all that information helps us prioritise the pipeline.

Because good Trust Fundraising isn't about submitting as many applications as possible.

It's about investing time in finding the right funders, understanding them properly and focusing precious fundraising time where there is the strongest opportunity.

So my August reflection is this:
Perhaps we shouldn't think of research as time taken away from fundraising. Perhaps it is one of the most important investments of fundraising time we can make.

08/09/2026

September often brings that “back to business” feeling.

The summer is over, diaries are filling up again, and many charities are reviewing their plans for the months ahead.

So while you’re looking at your fundraising plans, don’t forget one important area:

How are you going to steward the funders you already have?

Good stewardship shouldn’t begin a few weeks before you want to ask for another grant. It’s about building the relationship throughout the life of the funding.

Now is a good time to look at your current funders and make a simple stewardship plan.

Think about:

When reports and updates are due
What useful news or impact stories you could share between formal reports
Who in your charity should be involved in the relationship
Whether there are opportunities to invite funders to visit or see the work
When it would be appropriate to talk about future plans and potential further funding

It doesn’t need to be complicated. Even a simple spreadsheet with your funders, key dates and planned contact points can make a big difference.

Because funders are much more than a name on a grants spreadsheet.

They’ve chosen to invest in your work.

Make sure your fundraising plan includes a plan for looking after those relationships too.

05/09/2026

5th September - Today is the International Day of Charity and it feels like a good moment to reflect on why charities matter – and, perhaps more importantly, why their work is still so desperately needed.

I’ve been reading the latest research report around child poverty, and it makes sobering reading. Behind the statistics are children whose circumstances can affect their health, wellbeing, opportunities and futures.

Over the past 13 years at MMC, we’ve had the privilege of working alongside charities supporting children and young people facing some incredibly tough challenges – children with profound and multiple disabilities, young people at risk of exploitation, those experiencing poor mental health, trauma, domestic abuse, disadvantage and poverty.

We know these issues rarely sit neatly in isolation. Poverty can compound trauma, poor mental health, disability and vulnerability, making life even harder for children and families already dealing with a variety of other issues and challenges.

Through our consultancy work, we see the other side too: charities creating safe spaces, trusted relationships, opportunities, specialist support and sometimes simply being the organisation that is there when a child or family needs someone.

So this International Day of Charity, I’m thinking about all those organisations – large and small – doing this work every day.

There is still a huge amount to do. But I’m incredibly proud that, MMC has played a small part in helping charities doing some of the toughest work in our communities become stronger and more sustainable. ❤️ This will be an ongoing area of focus for our work going forward.

04/09/2026

DO YOU RUN A CHARITY, CIC OR COMMUNITY PROJECT?

Are you feeling the heat of these times? Navigating uncertainty and turbulence? You're not alone. Let's face it together.

On Tuesday 8 September, 10.00–11.30am, The Decelerator is hosting an in-person peer-to-peer conversation for charity, CIC, and voluntary sector leaders navigating turbulence and uncertainty in Exeter and around.

People signed up already are coming for a range of reasons: because their own organisation is anticipating or planning a closure, merger, restructure or succession planning process, or because their peers or partner organisations are going through them and they want to know how to support them well.

Together we will explore: What are we all seeing in our organisations and our sectors right now? What support do Exeter’s civil society leaders need, now and in the times ahead?

Having worked with 600+ organisations, The Decelerator has found that exploring endings in the open, alongside other leaders, is a courageous, creative act of leadership. We see every day how organisational endings can be acts of stewardship, protecting what matters most and taking care of people, not the defeat or failure many of us assume they might be. The Decelerator exists to make these conversations, and this kind of leadership, less isolating and better supported.

Date: 8th September 2026
Time: 10am-11.30am
Location: Central Exeter

A few final spaces are available. Please email [email protected] to sign up. If oversubscribed, they'll organise another session.

02/09/2026

The MMC team are really excited to have been nominated for The Notty Award, in the category of Community Champion.

Thank you for thinking of us and putting us forward for this award we are very greatful!

You can read more about the awards and event on the website https://thenottys.co.uk/

02/09/2026

Something new is taking shape at MMC Charity Consultancy...

As we shared in August, we’ve been taking a good look at our services – what our charity clients need from us, what we do best and how we can make it even easier to access the right support at the right time.

The result is our updated Stronger Charity Programme.

It brings together our experience across fundraising, leadership coaching, trustee development, wellbeing and consultancy, with different levels of support depending on where your charity is now and where you want to get to.

Our website is currently being updated to reflect the changes, and over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing much more about the new programme and the thinking behind it.

We’ll also be sending out a newsletter with the full details, so if you’d like to be one of the first to hear more, make sure you’re signed up to the MMC mailing list: https://mmcltd.co.uk/contact/

More to come soon… ❤️