Meet the Experts Helping to Make Our Project a Success: Alison Berwick

Alison is a Fundraising Consultant and Community Shares Practitioner specialising in heritage and cultural funding. She works with organisations, staff and volunteers to help them develop their fundraising strategy and skills and maximise the funding opportunities for their organisations and projects to enable them to deliver their visions.

We asked Alison a few questions about her time spent with Bourne Town Hall Trust:

How are you helping Bourne Town Hall Trust with their regeneration project?

I am supporting the Trust with the fundraising plan to raise the capital to deliver the project. This will be a mixture of sources from application to trusts and foundations, national and local funders, community fundraising and sponsorship. Funding is a very competitive environment so my role is to support them to reach their fundraising target and to consider all opportunities.

Which is your favourite part of the Old Town Hall building?

My favourite part of Old Town Hall is the original donor’s subscription board listing all 123 original donors who helped to build the Town Hall on the land donated by the Marquis of Exeter. As a Community Shares Practitioner, the idea of local people, families and businesses investing back in 1821 to build the original Town Hall is inspiring and a wonderful example of an early community crowdfunding. If this interests you too you could be become part of a team of researchers looking into names on the subscription board, who were they and do they still have families or relatives living nearby?

What have you discovered which is surprising/interesting/unexpected while working on this project?

Working with heritage buildings I am always fascinated by the stories of how the buildings have been used over time with their uses adapted depending on owners or community needs. Bourne Old Town Hall is no different, from Town Hall, fire brigade home and Court Room to shops in the Shambles and local authority offices – the building has had many uses over time. With this project the building will be reborn again – as an arts and culture venue. It’s so exciting to see this emerging.