THE CALL OUT: 

Bradford Producing Hub (BPH) is looking for a professional Fundraiser/s to work with us on reaching the full potential of this exciting new project. BPH is a multi–stranded pilot project that aims to support Bradford to be a creative city where lots of live performance is happening all the time. We want to change how artists and audiences explore, make and experience live performance in our district. 

We are looking for a suitably qualified individual, organisation or group of professionals to write the fundraising plan for BPH. It is expected that they will then be engaged to work with the BPH team to deliver the plan over the 3-years of the project. 

Fixed fee: £1500 for the development of the Fundraising Plan to a tight deadline. 

A further fee will then be agreed for the delivery of the Plan. 

This is a freelance engagement and the Fundraiser/s will be responsible for payment of their own tax and national insurance payments. 

Deadline for delivery of the Fundraising Plan: end Jan 2020. 

Interested? 

Please read the invitation for proposals information below. 

Send a proposal in any format you wish. For written proposals we would request no more than 2 pages of A4 (plus a CV if appropriate). Please make sure you tell us: 

  • How your experience meets the needs of this call 
  • The types of projects and size of budget you have worked on before 
  • A bit about how you would approach creating the Fundraising Plan 

We encourage applications from people who identify from backgrounds and experiences currently underrepresented in the arts (including, but not limited to: BAME, people with a disability or life limiting condition, working class, LGBT+). 

Proposals should be sent via email to BPH Commissioning Producer Lisa Mallaghan: bradfordproducinghub@gmail.com  

You are welcome to contact Lisa with questions about the project. 

Proposal Deadline: 16 December 2019 at 5pm. 

More information:  

BPH has a total project budget of c£2million with approx. 80% already confirmed through ACE and local authority, plus target earned income and ticket sales.  

BPH comes at an exciting time for Bradford with further investment from ACE of c£2million for a Creative People and Places project and the announcement of the intention to bid for UK City of Culture 2025. 

What we need: 

We are very open to the format and approach to the Fundraising Plan, but expect it would include: 

  • Detail of the strategy for the fundraising campaign 
  • Potential of corporate and business relationships, Trusts and Foundations and other grant giving bodies 
  • Distil the project into the different areas that are likely to be of appeal to potential funders 
  • A range of key targets with proposed request amounts 
  • Proposed timeline and associated resource implications 
  • Suggested approach / ways of working for delivery of the plan, including sharing knowledge with others 

Who are we looking for? 

We are keen to hear from individuals, organisations or groups who: 

  • Have significant experience in fundraising and income generation for large creative/ arts projects 
  • Are able to think about BPH’s current needs and the longer term sustainability of important areas of the project 
  • Can work strategically alongside other important initiatives in the District including The Leap (Bradford Creative People & Places project), City of Culture 2025 and Derby Producing Hub 
  • Are excited by the ethos of this project and our commitment to working differently to support artists, audiences and participants 
  • Want to embed themselves in the project and work with the team and consortium to embed a positive fundraising culture in all the ways we work 
  • Enjoy thinking creatively and finding ways to do things differently 
  • Understand the challenges faced by individual artists and small companies seeking to sustain a career in the arts 
  • Ideally have an understanding of Bradford District and the wider region 

Fundraising Plan Delivery: 

Once we have agreed the Fundraising Plan, we will confirm the fee and process for ongoing delivery with the Fundraiser.   

With everything we do in BPH we are really interested to see if things can be done differently, how knowledge can be shared and other people can be supported to develop skills. Our consultation for the project has already shown a need for more fundraising knowledge and expertise within the City, therefore we are also interested to hear ways you might work with artists and companies in the delivery of this project to increase their skills and confidence in fundraising.  

About Bradford Producing Hub (BPH): 

BPH is led by 6 Bradford arts organisations (NPOs and independents) and is one of two place-based pilot projects initiated by Arts Council England (ACE). BPH will take a radical new approach to supporting and developing artists, the creation of new work and how people engage with live performance in the places they live. This will include: 

  • Cultural infrastructure – mapping the cultural life of the District, developing ways for artists and organisations to share knowledge and resources and a centralised box office system available to anyone producing events in Bradford. 
  • Talent development – structured talent development programmes and opportunities responding to what artists need to realise their creative ambitions and sustain a career in the creative industries.  With their time for participation in this paid by the project. 
  • New work – commissions and support for boundary-pushing new work in a range of traditional and non-traditional spaces. 
  • Being user-led – the project will be led through an iterative process of consultation, led at every point by the needs and interests of the communities we serve, including a new Creativity Council, representative of Bradford’s people. 
  • Audience development – we’ll reach new audiences and test new ways of creating dialogue with audiences that go beyond the usual approaches to marketing, engagement and participation. 
  • Access – access will be central to all our activities and significant budget allocation has been made for this. We will take a broad and inclusive approach to this, where our communities will tell us what they need. 

For an overview of BPH please see: http://www.mind-the-gap.org.uk/stories/bradford-producing-hub/  

More about ACE vision for Producing Hubs, please see: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/blog/what-should-%E2%80%98performing-arts-producing-hub%E2%80%99-look  

Consortium: 

Theatre in the Mill (Lead partner) – https://www.brad.ac.uk/theatre/  

Common Wealth Theatre – http://commonwealththeatre.co.uk/ 

Displace Yourself Theatre – https://displaceyourselftheatre.co.uk/ 

Kala Sangam – http://www.kalasangam.org/ 

Mind the Gap – http://www.mind-the-gap.org.uk/ 

154 Collective – https://154collective.info/