FUND-it

There are teams that used our tools and succeeded with their project!

team published their map in June, giving a new life to USE-IT Warsaw map after 13 years from when the last edition was published!

💬As Iga from Warsaw team shared with us:
'We went through the materials available on the website and data from FUND-IT research before we reached out to the first sponsor - we planned the budget and the timeline of our work based on these materials, and here we go!
We got the money from 2 sources (municipality tourism department and external grant for NGOs) - and at the first try!' 🚀

Visit ✅ use-it.travel/fundit✅ if you want to look in to experience of experienced USE-IT teams and get some guidance on how to prepare a budget plan and project timeline - it’s all there waiting for you ✨

About blog on FUND-IT platform: DONE

On FUND-IT platform you will find not only tools, but also a blog section with some short articles. What did we write about?

✨ Mastering your Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
✨ ESG - what is it and how to use it for your cause
✨ Keeping the spark: strategies to sustain the motivation when creating a USE-IT map
✨Interviews with some USE-IT teams: Rotterdam, Tilburg, Szczecin and Rome
✨ Using Gantt-chart effectively

and more!

Go and check it yourself! Are there any topics we missed and you’d be interested to read about? Let us know!

🚀 Problem & Solutions: I don’t know where to find the funding!

💸 Within the FUND-IT project we collected stories from about 60 youth initiatives from all over the Europe and with free online tools we share this data and examples. Struggles with finding a sponsor for your project? We got you covered! Check out these helpful tools:

1️⃣ THE PERFECT FUNDER GUIDEBOOK: this guidebook will help you plan your fundraising journey more efficiently and consciously. You will find here examples of USE-IT projects and their successful fundraising stories, together with tips on grant applications writing.

2️⃣ INTERACTIVE MAP with USE-IT projects data: find inspiration for your sponsors in other similar projects stories. Just click on the city on the map and find reliable information about their budgets and their sponsors.

3️⃣ EU MONEY BOOKLET: for anyone who ever thought of applying for European grants. You will find here information about particular projects and grants, and their rules.

🚀 Problem & Solutions: I don’t know to prepare a budget plan!

💸 One of the most stressful activities of the project: preparing a good, reasonable and clear budget plan. How to do it right?

1️⃣ THE PERFECT FUNDER GUIDEBOOK: this guidebook will help you plan your fundraising journey more efficiently and consciously. You will find here good practice, budget examples together with tips on grant applications writing.

2️⃣ INTERACTIVE MAP with USE-IT projects data: find inspiration for your budget in other similar projects stories. We interviewed about 60 youth initiatives of USE-IT from different countries and cities, so you can find reliable information about their budgets and their sponsors. Just click on the city on the map and see!

Good luck on your budget planning and your entire fundraising journey! 💸

✨NEW PROJECT IN 2025? And you’re not sure where to start planning, budgeting and EVERYTHING? ✨

✅Our free FUND-IT platform offers at least 2 solutions to start with:

1️⃣ PROJECT TIMELINE in Prezi: it’s the tool that leads you step by step through all the project steps, based on USE-IT network experience. See how the USE-IT mapmakers approach particular steps and challenges and find some helpful knowledge on the way!

2️⃣THE PERFECT FUNDER GUIDEBOOK: this guidebook will help you plan your project and especially fundraising journey more efficiently and consciously. You will find here good practices examples together with tips on grant applications writing.

New year, new... projects?! Do you need some fundraising inspo for 2025 projects?

Check out free online platform with fundraising and management tools, created by youth for youth to reach their goals! 🚀

💥HERE IT IS! Our toolkit to help you fund your projects is now online and ready to use!

➡️ During our 3 years-long project called FUND-IT, we’ve interviewed more than 60 youth initiatives around Europe and collected all the experience and struggles that the USE-IT initiatives went through for years. To answer these challenges and growing needs for some knowledge base, we created tools, based on our research, and entire USE-IT network experiences and skills.

✅ Today we are happy to share with you this online toolkit that contains:

✨The Perfect Funder Guidebook,
✨Editable Booklet about USE-IT maps,
✨Booklet with information on EU money and programmes,
✨Interactive map filled with data from over 60 youth initiatives (with extra database available in Airtable!),
✨Video tutorials and interviews,
✨Project Timeline easy to follow,
✨Insightful reports from our research on over 60 youth initiatives.

🚀Go to our educational online platform www.use-it.travel/fundit and find them all! We hope you will never again feel alone and lost on your project journey!

✅ The Perfect Funder Booklet - it is a tool that you don’t want to miss on your fundraising journey! This tool is something many map-makers wished for when they started their USE-IT project and here it is: 💸 a short but rich manual of how to fund USE-IT projects, based on years of experience of the entire network.

➡️ In this Guidebook you will find:
✨ tips on project planning,
✨ tips on budget planning,
✨examples of how other USE-IT cities approached the challenge,
✨tips on how to write a grant application,
✨tips for meeting the authorities and other potential funders to talk about money.

🚀Go to www.use-it.travel/fundit, and Our Toolkit to download this free fundraising manual!

📨 Have you ever missed some simple hand-out about USE-IT that contains all the most important information about the project? We did and that’s why we created the FUND-IT Booklet!

🎨The best thing in our booklet is that you can edit it in Canva and customize it to your needs. ✅ You can, for example, emphasize the information about the tourism situation of your city or country, ✅ or point out the covers of the maps from your country. ✅ You can also easily translate it to your language with a Canva plug-in!

🚀Go to www.use-it.travel/fundit, and Our Toolkit to prepare your booklet for printing! It’s designed right just for A4, so you can easily print it even at home!

💪Never feel lost in your project! Our timeline is here to guide you through it!

✅ View the project plan, set the milestones, grab the fundraising knowledge and useful tools - all this in one place. This project timeline is based on experience of several USE-IT teams, so we are sure it fits every USE-IT project needs.

🚀Go to www.use-it.travel/fundit, and Our Toolkit, and find your project stage on the timeline, to easily plan ahead for the next steps!

💸 It would be great to understand the funders’ perspective, right? When preparing for the meeting with potential funders, check out the videos and tutorials we prepared for you!

✅ On FUND-IT platform you will find:
➡️ 3 interviews with authority representatives from different countries, so they can share experience and thoughts on institutional cooperation with youth projects, but also some tips for young people.
➡️ 3 interviews with successful initiatives, in which they share their experiences with fundraising.
➡️ extra tips on how to find sponsors, how to prepare for the first talk with a funder, and some good examples of sustainable projects, based on the USE-IT network community.

🚀Go to www.use-it.travel/fundit, and Our Toolkit to watch these inspiration and informative videos!