St John the Baptist Church, Badingham

Project: Bid writing to support match funding for Delivery Phase grant from National Lottery Heritage Fund

Role: Bid writer & Fundraising Mentor

This project is run entirely by volunteers from the Parochial Church Council and local people within Badingham who came together when it became apparent in 2018 that the nave of the Church could no longer be used due to damage to its roof which had to be scaffolded for health and safety, closing the nave for worship and drastically affecting local community life.  The church was placed on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register in 2021 and the scaffolding cannot be removed until the repair work is carried out.  The project seeks to repair the building so that the scaffold can be removed and the building brought back into full use.

To support the Council, I was funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund to prepare a month by month fundraising plan for the volunteers to follow, to devise a template funding bid for them to use and to draft the more complex bids for submission. This involved supporting the team as they finalised the Delivery Phase costings and all the supporting documents required for the Heritage Fund submission and collating the information into funding bids.