Working at Sinai Park House has so far been an extraordinary journey with a good way yet to travel. I met the, then chairman of the Trust, Kate Murphy, in May 2019. The original brief given to me by Kate was to review the fundraising strategy put together for a bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) in 2017. That bid had failed as it was submitted at a time of great upheaval at NLHF and had fallen slightly wide of the mark. 

Although the basic plans for both the restoration of Sinai and the methodology for funding were pretty sound I felt that the key problem was a lack of track record for a fledgling organisation (Sinai Park House Trust was established in 2016). My proposals, therefore, included bidding for grant funding in the tens of thousands in order to deliver some mini restoration and audience participation projects. 

Since then we have established a Forest School within the grounds at Sinai, restored the Georgian plunge pool and developed a new walking route and interpretation within the National Forest which borders the grounds. These projects have been funded mainly through grants from East Staffs Borough Council, National Forest Company and the Transforming the Trent Valley project (in itself funded by NLHF).

 
We have also run a variety of pilot projects to assess local demand and explore how we can manage different types of events. These events have been very successful from an engagement as well as a fundraising point of view. We are also using them to attract individual supporters for the overall restoration project. In 2022 we will be launching a full Guild of Patrons with the help of our new Trust Patron, TV historian and antiques expert, Charles Hanson. 

I approached Charles in Spring 2021 to become a SPHT Patron and this has become a flourishing relationship ever since which has led to events, social media support and some vital fundraising through charity auctions. 
The success of this approach has led us to contact other influential people which is already bearing fruit and will be announced hopefully in 2022.