From Start Up to Scale Up: Supporting Romodels with Fundraising

“From our early days as a small startup turning over around £20,000 a year, Maddy’s expertise has played a huge role in helping us grow to a point where we’re now on track to raise over £200,000 within just two years. Her ability to offer clear, practical advice on trusts and foundations, alongside guidance on building meaningful corporate partnerships, has been invaluable. Maddy is always on hand when we’re navigating new territory, and her support has given us both confidence and clarity at every stage. We’re hugely grateful for everything she’s contributed to our journey.” Laura, Founder and CEO, Romodels

In Spring 2024, ImpactEd Philanthropy started working with Welsh edtech charity, Romodels, who are on a mission to open up a world of career possibilities for children through their innovative, bilingual online learning platform for schools.

Founded in 2022 by Laura Labonne – who was inspired to create the charity based on her personal experiences of being a parent and seeing the barriers and stereotypes that children face at a young age – the charity introduces children aged 4-14 to diverse, inspiring role models in a wide range of careers and sets missions to help them understand day-to-day activities.  

When we first started working together, Romodels’ annual income was approximately £20,000; this was a start-up charity with big ambitions to grow and make a difference for children across Wales.

Crafting a case for support

Together, we developed a fundraising plan that took into account the charity’s size and limited capacity, with a focus on investing in the key building blocks of fundraising that would have a big impact on the charity’s impact to secure funding.  

This has included developing the charity’s case for support and – the story of need, activity and impact that is used to engage prospective donors – and accompanying organisation budget, and using these to develop high-quality applications that are tailored to funders.  

It has also included implementing a fundraising pipeline (which has now been embedded into a CRM) and identifying prospective donors to approach, with guidance on how to do so.  

Alongside specific projects, we have provided ongoing advisory support, including reviewing applications and reports, discussing strategic challenges and opportunities, and supporting the team to build strong relationships with supporters that will last into the future.

Delivering on fundraising strategy

We are delighted that, between 2024-2025, Romodels has quintrupled their income to exceed £100,000 for the first time and is on track to double that this year. This has meant that Laura can dedicate more time to leading Romodels, enabling the charity to develop new bilingual content featuring more inspiring careers, serve more schools – especially those in underserved communities – and engage more young people across a wider age range.  

Impressively, Romodels has already worked with 58 schools which serve 10,000 children across Wales, and was recently awarded UK Education & Training Start Up of the Year at the UK StartUp Awards.

The charity has been generously supported by a range of funders, including Comic Relief, CriSeren Foundation, The Fore, Forvis Mazars Foundation UK, Garfield Weston Foundation, The Moondance Foundation, Postcode Community Trust and Principality Building Society.  

Looking ahead, Laura and the Romodels team are determined to make a difference for more young people across Wales and we look forward to our continued partnership in pursuit of this mission.  

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Is your charity on a journey of growth and seeking support with fundraising?  

For an initial conversation with Maddy Gazzard (Director, ImpactEd Philanthropy), email maddy.gazzard@impactedgroup.uk

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