We love the Third Sector at Collage. We know (without being too downbeat) that funding has become increasingly difficult to secure in the current climate but nevertheless, we think we can help. Better yet, thanks to our track record of proven success in the Third Sector, we know we can be of assistance. Sometimes writing funding bids can be a little bit frustrating, but that’s where we can offer support. Perhaps your funding bids might need a new angle because of how competitive it has become trying to secure new revenue and you might need that little bit of extra support that can be the difference between a sad face and a happy bunny. We can offer that little bit of expertise and support that might be the difference between success and failure.

One of the ways we can help is by offering our support in marketing any initiatives and working on a pro bono basis – this means a raised profile for your project, our expertise in terms of engaging a wider audience, increased participation and so on, as well as being able to satisfy criteria for match funding that can be a bit of a stumbling block.

Whilst we may work say, 5 days on a project, we may only charge for around three days, which would effectively mean our daily fee for the other two days is waived, and this contributes towards match funding or work ‘in kind’.

Drop us a line if this sounds appealing and you think we can help. We’d be delighted to chat to you about it.

Dominic

Hi, my name is Stephen and I have just completed my one week work experience here at Collage Marketing.  I called Donna, the Managing Director, and asked if there was any chance of me joining the Collage team for one week and thankfully she said yes.  The first full day was very nerve racking as we were at the Reebok stadium for the Northwest Social Enterprise trade fair, here I learned the skills of marketing and all about the company itself.  I then went on to listen to Claire Young, runner up of The Apprentice 2008, who gave a speech on ‘How to promote yourself’.  Throughout the day I met with different businessmen and women who gave me insight on what their businesses were about, I collected different business cards from all the other stands.  The second day at Collage Marketing, I learnt how to input data onto a database.  This was useful as it may come in handy for the future.  On Thursday, I took part in an art work shop with local people from the community.  We all drew different pictures to represent the community and then later scanned them onto a computer where Kevin (the graphic designer) transformed them onto a collage.  On Friday, I put my skills to the test where I completed more database work on Microsoft Excel.   I have really enjoyed my time here at Collage Marketing.  I have learned some valuable skills for the future and I got to have an insight into what life would be like working with a team and working in an office.  I am very grateful to Donna, who took me under her wing for the week and showed me what it was like to work within a team, thanks,

Stephen

I attended junior school in the building that houses Collage for a couple of years. It’s packed full of nostalgic memories for me: the old classrooms, the corridors and of course the playground that’s now a car park that I used to play football with some of the best friends I’ve ever had. All those years later and I never expected I’d ever have any reason to come back but Collage kindly agreed to have me come along and get some experience of working in marketing having just graduated with an MA in… well….. marketing. I have to say I’ve really enjoyed it. The office is cosy- covered with all kinds of creative photos and images and the people that work here are better still. I hope I haven’t been too much of a pain for them but they certainly haven’t shown it if I have. Donna (the big boss) has forgotten more about marketing than I’ve learnt, I’m sure of it. She’s worked abroad for some of the biggest companies you can think of and what she doesn’t know about marketing isn’t worth knowing. Kevin (the in house graphic designer whose desk is beside mine) is ridiculously talented: he says he’s not a computer geek but he’s in denial. Watching what he can do and the creative imagery he can come up with is an experience in its self.  The thing I love most about Collage is the fact it’s ran as a social enterprise, we do lots of lovely creative, effective work and I know what value for money Collage provides. I like the idea that whilst a company mightn’t have the resources or manpower (or both) to do their own marketing that they can outsource to us here at Collage and get something great back in return. Have a look through the website if you haven’t already and see some of the great things Collage have done and could do for you: http://www.collagemarketing.co.uk/our_services.html

Dominic