Bid writing for charities and NFPs

We supported our client, Willowdene Rehabilitation, a social enterprise supporting women with complex needs across West Mercia, in three successful tenders, worth a combined ~£470k over three years. We had previously worked with Willowdene to prepare nine Selection Questionnaires to enable them to bid for contracts to further support women in West Mercia, for a contract worth £1million.

Tender 1:

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) offered multi-year grants for organisations that provided support for women in or at risk of contact with the criminal justice system with a focus on creating wider social benefits and ensuring the continuity of services for women. We worked with the client to create their responses, interviewing their management team, and writing responses focused on the client’s capability, experience, and capacity to deliver successful outcomes for the women, their children and families, and their communities. Willowdene were successfully awarded £60-£150k per year for three years.

Tender 2:

Willowdene sought MoJ funding to continue developing their Whole System Approach in West Mercia, providing holistic support for women in, or at risk of, entering the justice system. Having built a rapport with the client and worked with them on a previously successful MoJ bid, our team of writers used their existing knowledge, alongside further management interviews, to curate responses best fitting the MoJ’s expectations and highlighting the importance, and success, of the work carried out by our client. Willowdene were successfully awarded £125-£300k.

Tender 3:

We supported Willowdene on another successful bid, preparing a tender to the MoJ for funding to provide increased residential provisions for women who would otherwise receive a short custodial sentence. Again, we worked with the client to identify and reflect on how they would best meet the MoJ’s requirements, and how they would use the funding most advantageously. Willowdene were successfully awarded £40-£250k per year for three years

“In summary since working with Kittle: Turnover doubled in the first 12 months though new contracts and staff group has doubled – now at 49.

Kittle enabled us to take the next step from subcontractor to prime and professionally express our experience in bid tender document formats and promote our interventions, putting us firmly on the map. Through the support from Kittle, we were able to apply to become a preferred supplier, which in 2021 enabled us to access over £450k of contract revenue funding, each year for four years. Through this success we then continued to grow and apply for grant funding with Kittle, to complement existing activities as well as secure ongoing funding. In total, we have worked with Kittle on six projects as lead provider and all six have been successful. Since contracts going live in 2021 (three years on) we have either gained new contracts, maintained existing ones or secured additional grant funding, or formed partnerships in excess of £2.75 million.

The support from Kittle has not only enabled us to become preferred suppliers increasing our revenue and employing more staff but most of all has enabled us to work with some of the most disadvantaged people in our society that we would never have been able to reach and make a difference to.

Thank you.”

We supported a small charity in Dover to submit two bids to the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner, to advance its work with those with mental health issues living on the streets.

Our writer worked with the charity’s management team to understand their work, the challenges beneficiaries face, and how the charity’s proposed diversionary interventions would meet the Commissioner’s objectives to prevent people experiencing homelessness from becoming victims or perpetrators of crime.

Both bids were successful, and the charity was able to advance its work in the town.

Freeva (Free from Violence and Abuse) is a charity working to reduce domestic violence, rape and sexual assault in Leicestershire. They empower and support victims of domestic and sexual violence/assault, and challenge abusive behaviours. They also support perpetrators who recognise the need to change their behaviour.

In 2022 we worked with Freeva on three tenders to the Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicestershire, all of which were successful. We further strengthened our relationship with the charity in 2023, when we supported them across two coinciding bids: one to secure funding from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), and another for the provision of a Whole Family Relationship Service on behalf of Leicestershire City Council (LCC).

Both bids were successful, winning a total of £4m of funding for Freeva.

We supported a charity based in the South West providing support to women who are victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence, and who are at risk of becoming offenders themselves.

We worked with the client to develop their proposal for the South West Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) to provide a combination of interventions to help women desist from crime and to help them heal from trauma. For us, this meant interviewing subject matter experts, exploring their solutions, and identifying evidence that supported their methodology. We also needed to evidence outcomes for the women and how the service would support the CRC to achieve its aims and offer value for money.

This was an urgent project, with a tight turnaround of 3 days to prepare the submission, and we worked flexibly with the client to fit around their schedules.

The tender was successful and our client was awarded the contract.

Rape Crisis England & Wales (RCEW) is a membership organisation for Rape Crisis Centres across England and Wales, which delivers specialist services to those affected by sexual violence. They aim to educate, influence, and make change by providing expert information and support.

We assisted the charity on a bid to develop and launch a service for victims-survivors of sexual violence which would be available 24/7. Two writers supported this high-priority bid in which RCEW planned on making a partnership with their South London Centre who currently run the existing national helpline. RCEW already run a Live Chat service, and therefore this bid involved gaining a deep understanding of these services that would amalgamate into one and expand to become a new service for this tender.

This was a successful bid, leading to a £3m contract with the Ministry of Justice.