National House Project
Building a high-performing trust pipeline that reduces CEO workload and unlocks seven-figure funding.
National House Project is a national charity supporting young people leaving care to build strong, lasting networks and a stable home base as they move into adulthood.
When they approached us, they were concerned that internal trust fundraising capacity wasn’t keeping pace. Bid output was low, and the CEO was having to get too involved – often rewriting content and carrying fundraising delivery personally.
Background
NHP had a strong model and clear outcomes, but fundraising systems and capacity needed strengthening so applications could go out consistently without relying on senior leadership time.
Challenge
The goal was to increase trust income while reducing the degree to which fundraising depended on the CEO stepping in at key moments.
Our Approach
We built a structured programme designed to strengthen quality and compound results over time.
Year 1 – build the engine
- created a refreshed Case for Support
- refined the prospect list to match NHP’s purpose and scale
- established a consistent application rhythm, reducing reliance on CEO rewrites
A clear year 1 income target was agreed and met, and the programme was set up to run reliably.
Year 2 – scale and sharpen
In year 2, we built on the foundations and supported NHP to develop bids linked to new leads and relationships, alongside the main pipeline. As our understanding deepened, applications became more ambitious – culminating in a seven-figure grant of £1,000,000.
Results
Across the first two years, the programme delivered:
- increased submission volume and quality, with far less CEO involvement in drafting and rewrites
- progressively larger trust awards, culminating in £1,000,000 (end of year 2)
- a small mailer launched at the end of year 2 as a ‘donor barometer’, raising £20,000+ to date and continuing to grow at the time of writing
- an overall return on investment of 32:1
Year 3 has got off to an even stronger start. Six weeks in (at the time of writing), even if no further income were secured for the rest of the year, the programme would still be tracking at roughly a 10:1 ROI.
Why this approach worked
This succeeded because we put strong fundamentals in place early, then improved performance year-on-year as evidence, insight and bid strength compounded – creating a reliable pipeline and unlocking transformational awards.
Your charity could be our next success story.
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