Hi, I’m Connie

I’m a third-sector strategist, grant writer, and foster carer – usually all in the same week. I write about the reality of running a small charity, chasing funding, and fostering two teenagers, with none of the polish stripped out. Some of it’s useful. Some of it’s just true. Either way, you’re welcome here. I make the unfundable, fundable. In almost a quarter of a century doing this, I win at more than double the rate most professionals in this sector do.

Latest Posts

Finance

The Double Ask

Two trustees, one donor, two different asks within three days. It cost the charity five years of a relationship. What a proper CRM, even a free one, would have prevented.

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October 2, 2026

In the Thick of It

Half Way Up a Mountain When the Phone Rang

We went to Scotland for a week while my brother went in for major heart surgery. Both things were true from the moment we left until the moment we got home.

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September 25, 2026September 25, 2026

No-Nonsense Nonprofits

The ‘My Head Only’ Manual

I’ve been a trustee of the same charity for twenty-two years. I’m still the only one who knows where anything is. Here’s how to fix that before it’s chosen for you.

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September 25, 2026September 25, 2026

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New in Resources

Grant Ready workbook

Before You Register

Funding Readiness Check

Is a CIC right for you?

Where the Funders Actually Are

Grant Ready

£65

I spent ten years on the other side of the table, deciding who got funded and who didn’t. Good applications got rejected for reasons that had nothing to do with the writing.

Grant Ready is what I know from both sides of that desk. Not a template. Not a shortcut. The actual groundwork that has to exist before you apply, and how to build it honestly.

Working through it, you’ll stop:

Guessing whether you’re ready — you’ll have actually checked
Treating eligibility as a tick-box — it becomes your first real filter
Writing an application that sounds ready — you’ll be an organisation that is ready

My own Awards for All bids carry a 90% pass rate against a 39% national average. This is the work behind that number.

Get Grant Ready →