Funding Bid Writers for Environmental Charity

Dive into lasting impact. Fundraise for East London Waterworks Park to create and shape natural swimming ponds, ecological habitats and community gardens. What difference will you make? East London Waterworks Park is an exciting and ambitious project that offers many rewarding opportunities for our volunteers. You will have a significant impact on the creation of a new biodiverse community-owned park with free access natural swimming ponds and forest schools.

By leading fundraising projects that explore how diverse professionals (architects, ecologists, web developers, community researchers etc.) collaborate to shape community infrastructure, volunteers will directly contribute to the development of a park that truly reflects the needs and desires of the local community. Without funding we won’t be able to make it happen. Your input will help us craft experiences that inspire, educate, and engage our service users, stakeholders, funders, and the general public, ultimately driving support for the park's mission and ensuring its long-term sustainability.

What are we looking for? We are building a passionate team of funding bid writers to secure vital resources for our environmental and community projects. If you have a talent for persuasive writing and a knack for translating ideas into compelling proposals, we want to hear from you! If you have fundraising experience and would like to get involved with a local charity, it would be great to hear from you. We would also love to hear from potential volunteers without experience but with transferable skills and keenness to learn more! Our roles are quite flexible. We hope that people bring radical imagination, peace with nature, and courageous inclusiveness to the role.

• Crafting Compelling Funding Applications: Writing clear, concise, and persuasive funding proposals that align with funder guidelines and priorities. Developing strong narratives that effectively communicate the impact and value of our projects. Gathering and synthesising information from diverse sources to support funding applications.

• Researching Funding Opportunities: Identifying potential funding sources, including grants, trusts, foundations, and corporate sponsorships. Staying up-to-date on funding trends and opportunities relevant to our mission. Analysing funder requirements and eligibility criteria.

What will you be doing? East London Waterworks Park is working to acquire a 14-acre, concreted-over depot on the border of Waltham Forest and Hackney, and transform it into a ‘brownfield rainforest’ with wild-swimming pools and creative learning spaces for the local community. We are showcasing an environment-first, community-led approach to land ownership that will see nature and people thriving together, and revolutionising the way we think about green and blue spaces in cities. Our Crowdfunder raised over half a million pounds towards buying the land. Now we need to raise money for the work we are carrying out whilst we are liaising with the landowner. We have an exciting programme of community projects and work coming up.

If you are a good writer and seller of ideas, would you like to join our mini-team of funding bid writers? We would especially love to hear from you if you have experience of writing funding applications, and we are happy to share the skills we have developed with you if you would like to learn. The Fundraising Circle currently meets fortnightly on a Thursday evening on Google Meet and spends voluntary time outside of the meeting completing agreed tasks remotely. We understand that people may not have a lot of time to give, so we want to find volunteers who could give us one-off or ongoing strategic advice and support.