Fundraising is growing more competitive by the day as more organisations take on nonprofit status. A fundraising engine gets you ahead with a precise, targeted approach that emphasises:

• Ruthless prioritisation of funders who align with your mission.

• Regularly evaluating and refining which funders are right for you.

• Leveraging existing funder portfolios to find new leads.

• Centralising all fundraising data and insights in one accessible location.

• Kanban methodologies that efficiently track and manage opportunities.

• Time-blocking and automation that keep your fundraising knowledge up to date.

• Anticipating cycles, deadlines, and crunch points.

A good fundraising engine has five elements:

1. Lead database: A place to store potential funders and the intelligence you have gathered on them

2. Research framework: A streamlined way of searching for funders.

3. Prioritisation criteria: A checklist that directs your efforts towards the most promising leads.

4. Opportunity tracker: A database that keeps you on top of deadlines.

5. Engagement engine: A time-blocking and outreach practice that nurtures long-term relationships.

This course will show you have to develop, establish, and maintain a bespoke engine for your organisation.

By the end of this 5-hour course, you will:

• Create a bespoke fundraising engine tailored to your organisation’s unique needs.

• Understand complex fundraising terminology that previously seemed daunting.

• Differentiate between various funders and funding types to target the right opportunities.

• Evaluate the journalism funding landscape and strategically position your efforts.

• Prioritise funders aligned with your mission, ensuring your resources are used effectively.

• Build and manage your own unique funder database, enabling you to track opportunities and timelines with ease.

• Start applying for grants and funding with the confidence of a seasoned professional.

• Journalists and fundraisers entering the nonprofit space for the first time who find the jargon and processes overwhelming.

• Experienced fundraisers seeking to refresh their strategy, reassess their goals, and discover new funding sources.

• Time-poor professionals who need a streamlined, efficient system that saves time and reduces stress.

• Anyone in journalism looking to navigate the scarce and competitive world of journalism funding with confidence and precision.

• Journalism-focused: Unlike other fundraising resources, this course is tailored specifically to the unique challenges of journalism fundraising.

• Depth and detail: Unlike most journalism fundraising resources, we go beyond the basics, diving deep into the complex world of journalism funding, providing you with unprecedented insights and strategies.

• A complete productivity system: This isn’t just a course filled with tips and tricks; it’s a comprehensive system that transforms how you approach fundraising.

• Insider knowledge: Benefit from the experience and strategies of an independent expert who has raised over €30 million from leading foundations like Open Society Foundations, Luminate, Adessium Foundation, Schoepflin Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

• Free resource included: Fundraising HQ, an entire framework for your fundraising productivity system with detailed profiles on over 80 funders.

Inside, you'll find:

• Self-paced lessons. This is a written course that will take about five hours to complete. Video lessons are coming soon!

• Free download of Fundraising HQ, an Excel spreadsheet designed to create the perfect fundraising system for journalists (contains profiles of 80+ funders).

• Practical exercises to help you on your journey and put theory into practice.

• A login to get you lifetime access to the course, including all updates.

Yes! Version one of this course was free and very popular. So we went back to the drawing board and updated it with a bunch of new lessons, fresh examples, a completely overhauled flow, and recorded video lessons (coming soon!).

As result we've now decided to charge a one-off fee.

Plus, now you also get Journalism HQ bundled with it - this is a free digital download that templates your entire fundraising workspace, and gives you intelligence on 80+ funders in the journalism space.

Yes! If you are an international customer and you can't afford this course, email hello@evenlydistributed.co and I'll generate a discount for your country that gives you a discount relative to where you live.

With the accompanying digital download, Fundraising HQ, you’re not just getting a spreadsheet—you’re gaining access to a strategic tool designed to give you a competitive edge in the fundraising landscape. Pre-loaded with actionable intelligence on 80 funders, it’s the ultimate resource to kickstart your fundraising efforts and drive your journalism projects forward.

1. Lead Database: A comprehensive list of potential funders, complete with key details to help you target your outreach.

2. Strategic Prioritisation Criteria: A framework to help you rank and prioritise funders based on their alignment with your mission.

3. Opportunity Tracker: A dynamic space to track your progress, manage deadlines, and ensure no opportunity is missed.

4. Prospect Tracker: Calendar template to help you identify bottlenecks and keep to deadlines.

The authors of this course are Adam Thomas and Zöe Hull.

Adam is the founder of Evenly Distributed, and an award-winning journalism and technology leader. He's been an executive and leader in non-profits (European Journalism Centre; Sourcefabric), start-ups (Storyful), and corporate media companies (News Corp) and has personally fundraised over €30m from Open Society Foundations, Luminate, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, Facebook/Meta, Democracy & Media Foundation, News Integrity Initiative, Civil Media, Evens Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Bay & Paul Foundations, Schoeplin Stiftung, Fondation Puech, Adessium Foundation and many more. He was the co-founder of the Journalism Funders Forum, an initiative to bridge the gap between funders and journalism in Europe.

Zöe is an experienced fundraiser and bid-writer who has spent over 15 years in the UK charity sector working in arts, culture, environment, and health for Macmillan Cancer Support, Alzheimer's Society, Teenage Cancer Trust, Durham Wildlife Trust, and Northern Stage.

The content in this course is provided for educational and informational purposes only. While we strive to keep the information up-to-date and accurate, we make no representations or warranties of any kind about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, or availability with respect to the course or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the course for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.

The information and materials presented in this course are derived from a variety of sources, including academic research, industry insights, and professional experience. Where specific sources are used, they are cited within the course modules.

ChatGPT 4 was used to assist the creation of this course. We used it to help structure our ideas, draft short texts based on our inputs, and edit for clarity and tone. Everything has been fact-checked by a human.