GIFTS helps charity “give our all” in spend-out triumph

At this year’s Buzzacott Giving Solutions’ GIFTS User Group Meeting, Angie Seal, Grants Manager of the Tubney Charitable Trust, praised the software’s role in ensuring the Trust’s creation of a positive and enduring legacy after 15 years of giving.

In the last of Tubney’s four funding phases, the charity had awarded well over £20-million of “legacy grants”, she said.  These would build the capacity of partner organisations towards the point where they could deliver jointly agreed objectives way beyond Tubney’s closure in March, 2012.

Angie also outlined how her trustees’ grant-making strategy had evolved over time.  Following an initial phase of low-level funding, where small grants were awarded in response to application letters, Tubney moved to granting much higher sums in a second phase, following the sudden deaths of both founders in 2001 and the receipt of a £50-million endowment.  GIFTS was purchased from Buzzacott Giving Solutions to manage the two-stage, hard-copy applications received during this phase, which resulted in 224 grants totalling almost £13-million in just two years.

With no full-time staff and only broad funding criteria, the trustees felt that the Trust’s grant-making effectiveness could be improved.  They appointed an executive director in 2003 and, following a strategic review, adjusted the Trust’s funding criteria and targeted its giving on just two areas: conservation of the natural environment and farmed animal welfare. 

They also took on three additional staff who developed the grant-making process, refining the usage of GIFTS and successfully introducing IGAM, its online application module.  This team was responsible for a valuable new tool, a flow-chart based on an Excel spreadsheet, which showed how Tubney’s grant-making process worked at this time.  Angie is happy to share it with anyone thinking of documenting their own procedures or reviewing them; the “Open Programmes” she supervised ran smoothly from 2004-2008, during which £21-million was awarded in almost 100 grants.

By 2008, the trustees were satisfied that Tubney’s objectives were being fulfilled and their grant-making was making a difference.  It remained to decide how the Trust’s spend-out would be conducted.  Following another strategic review, they decided to close the Open Programmes and move to a final phase of legacy grants, where a small number of large-scale, life-changing awards would be made to organisations which had become known to Tubney through their applications under the Open Programmes. 

The chosen recipients were invited to assess how a significant, capacity building grant could best be used to improve the organisation and enhance its operations far into the future.  They were then encouraged to work closely with Tubney to develop formal proposals, sometimes with the support of a grant.  This cooperation resulted not only in high-quality applications but a strengthening of the ties established during the Open Programme phase.  GIFTS was still used to manage the proposals and grants but less administration was required: payments were made in a single instalment and no feedback reporting was required, in effect making the legacy process a simplified version of grant-making under the Open Programmes.   

With Tubney’s funds now all allocated, the focus has changed to sharing lessons learned before the Trust’s office closes.  The trustees have published a report entitled “Giving our all: reflections of a spend-out charity”, which was launched on November 7 and tells the story of Tubney and its grant-making.  Anyone can download a copy from the website, www.tubney.org.uk, or request a hard copy.

Meanwhile, Angie is happy to answer any questions about the Trust’s grant-making, its use of GIFTS and the processes which worked so well for her.  She can be contacted on 0118 958 6100 or at a.seal@tubney.co.uk.