Portfolio

I’ve worked on hundreds of competitive bids across my career, with a strong track record of success. Before going freelance in 2022, I spent over six years as a Senior Development Manager at the Centre for Sustainable Energy and four years as a regional Development Manager at The Conservation Volunteers. I’ve also worked at Global Action Plan, Avon Wildlife Trust and the Environment Agency.

While bid writing is my core skill, I also have substantial experience in pipeline development and strategy, improving internal processes, building database tools, writing internal policy, designing grant‑making programmes and creating learning materials.

Photo of a row of herbs planted in large, rusty tin cans and placed on top of upright grey logs, with herb names painted on the log fronts

Case Studies

Keeping it Wild with London Wildlife Trust

The Keeping it Wild programme supports young people from underrepresented backgrounds into environmental careers and activism. I helped the youth team turn their vision and wealth of evidence into strong proposals for extension and expansion, securing over £800,000 in total from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and National Lottery’s Reaching Communities fund.

Community Energy Fund with the Net Zero Hubs

Now rebranded as the Great British Energy Community Energy Fund, this is the UK Government’s main fund to support development of community energy projects. I wrote the application forms, guidance and marking matrix, working with the Hubs – led by South West Net Zero Hub – and taking a steer from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) on requirements.

Local Energy Advice Demonstrator (LEAD) Toolkit with South West Net Zero Hub

LEAD was a national programme of 30+ projects testing innovative approaches to community energy advice. I created a toolkit of resources, capturing project learnings, for the six south-west region projects. I also created a national learnings report from the England-wide LEAD conference, which was coordinated by South West Net Zero Hub. The toolkit is online here.

Restoring the River Crane with The Conservation Volunteers (TCV)

I developed a successful £212,000 bid to the UK Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund, administered through the National Lottery Heritage Fund using their standard application processes. The project brought together local authority, charity and grassroots partners to create an inclusive project in a diverse neighbourhood.

Programme Analysis with the Welsh Wildlife Trusts

I undertook an internal programme analysis for the five Welsh Wildlife Trusts, coordinated alongside Wildlife Trusts Wales. The work involved gathering and summarising a large volume of information about past projects from the Trusts and contextualising the information to support future programme development in the Welsh funding context.

Full Cost Recovery (FCR) and Training with TCV

While employed as a regional Development Manager, I built a national full cost recovery model to automate and provide robust, auditable calculations to underpin project budgets, accompanied by a training video and training sessions. Due to specific internal needs around TCV’s dispersed delivery model, the tool required a more complex approach than typical FCR methods.

Wider Experience

Strategic Bid Writing – Further Examples

  • Secured £1m from the Big Lottery Fund to establish a flagship environmental youth programme
  • Led UK Government tender wins including the national Green Open Homes Network and the Urban Community Energy Fund
  • Developed the narrative for a successful £9m multi‑partner tender for low‑carbon retrofit in social housing
  • Secured local authority contracts for community engagement in environmental and nature‑based projects
  • Secured local authority contracts for technical energy studies and specialist advisory work
  • Secured framework contracts including ongoing contract management
  • Achieved trust and foundation funding for community energy, sustainable lifestyle, nature conservation and nature connnection projects

Programme Development – Further Examples

  • Co‑developed organisational strategy for a national conservation charity
  • Analysed and advised on fundability and funding options for a national charity
  • Refined theories of change for environmental and place‑based programmes
  • Delivered GIS spatial analysis to inform narratives about communities living near proposed place‑based projects
  • Designed grant‑making paperwork and scoring frameworks for corporate and public‑sector
  • Served as an external expert on a corporate grant‑making panel for community resilience grants, distributing £2m over two years

Tools & Resources – Further Examples

  • Developed full cost recovery tools and built day rate and salary‑based budgets
  • Created guidance on non‑profit governance and community benefit for a national grant‑making programme
  • Ran workshops and designed an interactive card game helping socially-driven charities explore how climate change affects their work
  • Produced in‑house technical training videos on flood defences and flood history
  • Written detailed conference reports on local and community energy including Open Space events
  • Created GIS maps using open source software and data
  • Ran training on proposal document formatting and effective use of graphics and maps to communicate information
  • Designed and built in‑house databases for bid tracking and contacts management
  • Written internal policies for national charities, including business continuity and safeguarding
  • Created a flood resilience index as part of MSc studies, later published academically by the Royal Geographical Society

Success with Funders

I’ve secured funding from a wide range of funders through competitive grants and tenders. Examples are shown below.

  • Ashden Awards
  • Biffaward
  • Big Lottery Scotland
  • Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)
  • Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra)
  • Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI), NI
  • Energy Redress Scheme
  • Energy Saving Trust
  • Ernest Cook Trust
  • Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
  • Friends Provident Foundation
  • Garfield Weston Foundation
  • Greater London Authority
  • Historic England
  • Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
  • National Lottery Community Fund
  • National Lottery Heritage Fund
  • NESTA
  • Network Rail
  • The JJ Charitable Trust (Sainsbury Family)
  • Welsh Government
  • Wessex Water
  • Yarley Environmental Trust

Testimonials

Feedback from clients, partners and colleagues about my work.

“Ruth came onboard at short notice to write an Energy Redress bid. We were so impressed by her ability to understand the project, identify holes in the logic or areas where the case was weak, and use this to push us to do further work. She then produced a really high‑quality bid in just two weeks. With limited word counts to express a complex project in a succinct, funder-centric manner, it’s clear Ruth was able to walk this tightrope better than we have been able to in previous bids. This was our first experience using independent bid writing support for some time and was a lesson in how much this is a specialism. We ended up with a much higher quality bid with less time required from our management team. I would highly recommend her!”

Head of Delivery Team, Energy Charity

“I’ve worked with Ruth on several funding bids, as well as prospect research and a training session for our fundraising team on QGIS data and graphics in bids. I’ve been really impressed with her careful attention to detail, her excellent communication skills, and her strong writing skills. She knows what questions to ask to ensure she gets the information she needs to write the best possible application. I’ve really enjoyed working with Ruth and would highly recommend her to anyone seeking a bid writer who specialises in the environmental sector.”

Senior Fundraiser, Wildlife Trust

“Ruth supported us with bid writing over a two‑month period when we needed grant fundraising cover. She quickly grasped the brief and I learnt a lot from Ruth’s strategic and methodical approach. She quickly built relationships with the team. Her insights, critique, sound methodology and the super clear and compelling written propositions have added tremendous value to our grant writing and Ruth was a pleasure to work with. I’ve already recommended her to others.”

Head of Fundraising, Wildlife Trust

“Ruth has a fantastic way with words and is a great person to work with to ensure perfection in the final product. During our strategy development work, she confidently questioned ideas and decisions, constantly thinking how different readers would interpret our words. She then took a complex message and wrote the strategy overview in an accessible, engaging way.”

Marketing Manager, Conservation Charity

“Ruth has been a pleasure to work with. Her attention to detail and understanding of the work consistently ensures excellent quality in her delivery.”

Strategic Stakeholder Manager, Net Zero Hub

“A very thorough, excellent report with in‑depth analysis. I’d highly recommend Ruth.”

Director, Wildlife Trust

“Ruth is among the most organised and capable people I have ever worked with and her ability to pull together information quickly, align organisational objectives with funder needs and produce high quality written work and accurate budgets every time is really second to none.”

Head of Delivery Team, Energy Charity

“That spreadsheet is a work of art. I really appreciated how clearly you explained the concepts and functionality together — it suited my learning style far better than most training. I’ve gone from being completely baffled by full cost recovery to feeling confident enough to give it a go.”

Team Leader, Conservation Charity

“Ruth was able to pinpoint the key aspects of bid and grant opportunities and support the team in developing strong, engaging bids. She also developed a strong full cost recovery tool that generated an organisational wide discussion about long-term sustainability. A hard working and focused person who will get things done.”

Regional Director, Conservation Charity

“Ruth’s work is skilful, and she can bring together multiple sources of information into dynamic, engaging formats. She brings a wealth of knowledge. Ruth has been a pleasure to work with and has created wonderful products for us.”

Project Manager, Net Zero Hub

“Ruth has a highly developed ability to quickly assess the suitability of grant opportunities, bringing in the right people and tailoring the argument to best effect. Combined with her strong research skills, word‑smithing and work ethic, she’s hard to beat. I thoroughly recommend her.”

Assistant Director, Conservation Charity

“I have found Ruth’s approach to be very thorough – she asks insightful questions, which has helped us consider how we frame our proposition.”

Head of Fundraising, Wildlife Trust

Testimonials are from verifiable LinkedIn recommendations, alongside two quotes reproduced from email correspondence with permission. Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.