Harbour Place Day Centre aims to improve life for people aged 18 and over in Grimsby who have very little to call their own. Established in 1996, it provides food, washing facilities and a change of clothes, as well as support and advice to all sorts of people, including the homeless, ex-offenders, substance misusers and those who have long-term health conditions.

Why Pilotlight?

The challenge the charity faced was around funding, says chief executive, Allen Young. ‘Most charities live hand to mouth and need donations and successful funding applications. The Big Lottery has been exceptionally good to us but there could come a time when we are not successful so we can’t rely on it. I wanted a longer life-expectancy for the charity so we needed to do things differently.’

With the charity based in an area of high unemployment and with changes to tax credits and welfare benefits soon to take effect, Allen felt even greater pressure to increase funding to cope with the expected increase in people turning up on the doorstep. Last year the charity supported 47 people a day on average. By January 2012 that had risen to 63, and on two days the figure was over 70.

How we helped

Allen is impressed with how Pilotlight helped him plan for the future. ‘It is important to discuss your development with people from the outside world. We want to shape a business plan that will help us attract funding that is more sustainable than writing off to trusts or filling out grant applications.’

With the Pilotlighters’ help, they investigated a number of scenarios where they could provide services on behalf of the health authority or local authority; for example they discussed approaching the local authority to consider a long-term service agreement for Harbour Place to take over its housing services.

‘We need to develop a business case that will make us attractive to take on these sorts of services. We also need to be able to clearly demonstrate the added value we could bring if we were to take over and run current statutory services.’

A number of clients have alcohol and/or substance misuse problems and Allen says this can make it more challenging to attract donations in conventional fundraising ventures. ‘One Pilotlighter said we should get key local business people involved in the charity and he suggested putting donation envelopes on flights run by a local airline.

‘We have really valued the advice and we can see that there will be a lot in it for us. I have already recommended Pilotlight to a few other charities.’

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