International Fundraising Consultancy
Corporate Partnerships
St Martin’s Housing Trust had the tough challenge of not only raising sufficient funds to construct a 22-bed care home with communal facilities for single homeless people in Norwich but they also needed to purchase an existing building on the same site and convert it to a Health Resource and Treatment Centre.
Most of this has now been successfully achieved but in the Autumn of 2007, there was still an urgent need to raise the final funds needed for renovating and refurbishing the existing building. St Martin’s were keen to engage with the Norwich business community. IFC proposed, researched, planned and helped organise a business breakfast which was kindly hosted by Lord Lieutenant, Richard Jewson and the law firm, Eversheds. Fifteen companies were represented by senior executives, all of whom responded to the event enthusiastically and, in particular, to the moving testimonial delivered by John, a former resident and now on the staff of St Martin’s. Many more companies, via the Lord Lieutenant’s personal letter of invitation and the follow-up after the event, learnt of the valuable work of St Martin’s.
A number of those who attended were keen to follow up with a visit to the site; others offered to raise funds but the most valuable contributions were the offers of help and services in kind. These ‘gifts’ can never be underestimated, especially when significant savings can be gained on costs already budgeted for. In St Martin’s case, as a result of the breakfast, they were able to have the help of a structural engineer and architect at a much reduced price. Other help came in the form of publicity for the Trust.