How The Twinning Project used Vee to stay consistent with grants and storytelling — and landed a £45,000 win

A Mission Built Around Second Chances

In the UK, roughly 80% of people in prison are reoffenders. Behind that statistic is a system that continues to struggle with rehabilitation — and a cost of more than £50,000 per year for every person kept in prison. The Twinning Project was created to challenge that cycle.

Founded by UK football figure David Dean, the nonprofit partners with prisons, football clubs, and governing bodies to deliver accredited football coaching qualifications inside correctional facilities. Their goal is simple but powerful: create a pathway toward purpose, structure, and employment through sport.

Working alongside the Football Association, Twinning delivers the UK’s only face-to-face Level 1 coaching qualification inside prisons, helping participants graduate as accredited football coaches with opportunities beyond prison walls.

And despite operating internationally, the organization behind it is incredibly lean.

“We’re a really, really small team here. Really small,” says Natasha Brookner, who oversees operations, grants, and communications for the charity. “Considering our outreach, we are four people.”

The Challenge: Big Mission, Limited Capacity

Like many nonprofits, Twinning wasn’t struggling with vision. It was struggling with bandwidth.

Two members of the team spend most of their time in the field — meeting prisons, football clubs, attending graduations, and building partnerships. That leaves very little time for the work that keeps nonprofit growth moving behind the scenes:

• Grant research

• Application writing

• Social media management

• Corporate storytelling

• Ongoing donor visibility

“I don’t have time to look for grants. I don’t have time to post on social media,” Natasha explains.

The organization had already gone through one major funding pivot.

Originally structured as a grant-giving charity itself, Twinning eventually shifted toward a government-funded model after facing the realities of fundraising within the criminal justice space — an area Natasha describes as carrying significant stigma compared to causes like children’s charities or medical organizations.

The shift worked, but it also created a new challenge:

How could such a small team continue growing its visibility, partnerships, and private fundraising pipeline without burning out?

Finding Vee

Twinning first discovered Vee through LinkedIn. At the time, they became one of Vee’s earliest customers — and they’ve remained with the platform ever since.

On the grants side, Natasha uses Vee to help maintain a consistent pipeline of opportunities and applications.

Coming from a grant-giving background herself, she knows exactly what makes a strong proposal — but finding the right opportunities and carving out time to pursue them was the difficult part.

“On the whole, the UK ones are a great starting point,” she says about the grants surfaced through Vee. “When it comes up, it’s pretty well written.”

Natasha now aims to submit at least one grant application every week, often dedicating focused hours late in the afternoon once the day’s meetings and fieldwork settle down.

At the same time, Vee’s AI social media teammate, Maggie, helped the organization stay visible online without adding another major operational burden.

The process became simple:

• The field team shares photos and updates

• Maggie drafts social content

• Natasha reviews and approves

“We are trying to be more proactive that way, rather than reactive,” Natasha says.

The Win: £45,000 From The National Lottery

In February 2026, Twinning secured one of its most significant wins to date:

£45,000 from the National Lottery Awards for All England programme.

The opportunity was surfaced through Vee, and Natasha worked through the funder’s application process to refine and submit the proposal.

For a four-person organization, wins like this are transformational.

But Natasha is also quick to point out an important reality of fundraising:

Not every application succeeds.

During the same period, the organization also applied to:

• The Tony Robbins Foundation

• Clothworkers’ Foundation Open Grants Programme

• Wabtec Foundation

• Forces in Mind

Those applications were rejected.

And that’s exactly the point.

Successful fundraising isn’t about winning every grant.

It’s about maintaining enough pipeline volume, consistency, and momentum to keep opportunities moving — something many small nonprofits simply don’t have the time or staff capacity to sustain alone.

Building a Smarter Workflow for a Small Team

Today, Twinning continues expanding its programs across the UK and internationally, including growth supported by the FIFA Foundation in territories like Singapore.

At the same time, the organization is continuing to refine how technology supports its day-to-day operations.

One area Natasha is especially excited about is reducing friction between fieldwork and storytelling.

“If there was a way that they could just talk to the phone, saying, ‘I’m here, I’m meeting with…’ or ‘I’ve just come out of the graduation…’”

For nonprofits operating constantly on the move, capturing impact in real time matters.

And for small teams, every hour saved matters even more.

Why This Story Matters

The Twinning Project is not a massive organization with an unlimited budget or large fundraising department. It’s a four-person nonprofit tackling one of the most difficult fundraising categories there is — while simultaneously expanding internationally and delivering real-world impact inside prisons.

Their story reflects a reality many nonprofits know well:

The bottleneck usually isn’t passion. It isn’t mission. It isn’t even strategy.

It’s capacity.

And for small organizations trying to do meaningful work with limited time, the ability to consistently research grants, submit applications, and maintain visibility can make the difference between growth and stagnation.

Sometimes, it can also mean the difference between finding a £45,000 opportunity — or never discovering it at all.