Birmingham had a chance to experience Near Neighbours with a Leicester flavour when John McCallum visited the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre to give us a fantastic introduction to fundraising for faith-based organisations.

John is the Near Neighbours Co-ordinator based at the St Philip’s Centre in Leicester who brings with him many years of funding experience.

More than 20 participants from faith communities around the city came to Sparkhill for the course on the 6th March and travelled with John, at some speed, through the hows and whys and whats of fundraising.

Through the day people learnt together how to find funders, how to apply, how to manage the fundraising process and how to use a grant wisely. There was a also a chance to hear from and question a ‘live’ trustee of two local grant-making bodies.

Initial feedback from the day was really positive. People were impressed by the quality of the materials, the subject matter covered and John’s breadth of experience and knowlege. So thank you Leciester for coming to Brum – hope we can return the favour sometime!