I'm Constance Grayson. Most people call me Connie.
I'm a third-sector consultant based in Grimethorpe, South Yorkshire, and I've been doing this work for more than twenty-five years. I specialise in grant funding, tender applications, CIC and charity formation, governance, policy development, and strategic planning. If your organisation needs to get funded, get structured, or get its house in order, this is what I do.
My success rate on Awards for All applications is 90%, against a sector average of 39%. On Sport England Movement Fund, it's 97%, against a national average of 50%. I haven't had a single failed charity formation or CIC registration in over two decades. Not one. Those figures matter because they tell you something about how I work, which is not by guessing.
Where I come from
I grew up in Grimethorpe in a mining family. My dad was a miner. Both my grandfathers were miners. So were two of my brothers and my uncle. I didn't study community deprivation from a distance. I grew up inside it, and I watched what happened to this village when the colliery closed. In the mid-1990s, Grimethorpe was formally identified as the most deprived community in the United Kingdom. I've lived here my entire life.
That background is not a selling point I deploy carefully. It's simply the truth of where my understanding comes from. When I help an organisation evidence community need, or make the case to a funder for why their work matters, I'm drawing on something that goes a long way beyond technique.
In the past twenty-five years I've helped establish more than 140 charities and community organisations, supported over 400 organisations to develop sustainable income streams, and raised many millions of pounds across a wide range of funding sources. I work with grassroots organisations across England, including several Punjabi and NRI communities, where I understand both the specific challenges those communities face and how to communicate them effectively to funders.
What I actually do
Grant funding is my core specialism, but the work rarely stops there. Most organisations come to me for a bid and leave with a clearer sense of where they're going and how to get there.
The support I offer includes:
Grant writing and tender applications, from small community funds to six-figure statutory contracts. Awards for All, Sport England, the National Lottery, Arts Council, and many others.
CIC and charity formation, including constitutions, governing documents, and Companies House registration. I haven't lost one yet.
Governance support, including trustee induction, skills audits, policy development, and compliance reviews.
Strategic planning, including income diversification, theory of change, and organisational health assessments.
Quality mark support, including PQASSO and similar frameworks. I've taken clients through without a single query raised.
Volunteer strategies, communications frameworks, and operational policies built from scratch for organisations that had no idea where to start.
I'm also an active foster carer. Our household includes neurodivergent young people, including teenagers with autism and pathological demand avoidance, and children living with severe dyslexia, visual stress, and ADHD. That experience runs directly into my third-sector work. The communities I support are full of people whose needs get misunderstood, underfunded, and underestimated in exactly the same ways. I understand that from the inside, not from a textbook.
How I work
I work with a small number of clients at any one time so that the work is actually done properly. I'm not a bid factory. I read your organisation carefully before I write a word, and I tell you honestly if I don't think you're ready to apply, because submitting a weak bid costs you more than not submitting at all.
My fees are transparent and agreed upfront before any work begins. I'll tell you what the job costs, why, and whether there's a more cost-effective way to approach it. I don't inflate scope and I don't hide costs in the small print. If I don't think the numbers work for your organisation, I'll say so.
Only 2% of small charities can easily find local expert support. I work precisely in that gap, and I'm not interested in making myself sound more complicated or expensive than the job requires.
Want to work together?
The best starting point is a conversation. Tell me what your organisation does, what you're trying to achieve, and where you're stuck. I'll tell you honestly whether and how I can help.
You can reach me at connie@3rdsss.com or use the contact form below.
I do reply. I don't bite. And I won't waste your time with a sales pitch.
More from me
If you want to get a feel for how I think before you get in touch, the blog is the place to start. I write about funding, governance, the gap between how the third sector is supposed to work and how it actually does, and occasionally about the chaos of a loud, neurodivergent household in South Yorkshire.
