Sideeffect – Fundsquire | Growth Funding

INDUSTRY USE CASES

Sideffect

Sideffect, a Perth based non-profit organisation, focuses on educating youth on substance awareness and making informed decisions. Its mission is to bring early intervention and implement harm minimization strategies in communities and schools across the nation.

Sideffect was launched in 2013 by Rodney Bridge after a deeply tragic experience.

Rodney’s son, Preston Bridge passed away due to accidentally taking a synthetic form of LSD. Rodney knew that his son’s choices would have been different had he known what he was taking. Sideffect was established with a vision to educate and empower individuals to make informed decisions regarding substance use and to avoid such tragedies.

“You just need someone to listen to you and understand where we were coming from, and Fundsquire did that.”

Introduction to Fundsquire

Fundsquire was introduced to Rodney through a mutual friend of a couple of Fundsquire Australia team members.

Sideffect has been doing impressive work in the sphere of substance abuse education, and has received federal funding from the Federal Ministry of Health. They then contracted Edith Cowan University in Western Australia to work with them on the program. The 3-year long federal funding they have received is on a drawdown system, paid out every quarter and based on the completion of major milestones and projects.

During the pandemic, one of Sideffect’s key programs soared, increasing the amount of work they had to complete exponentially over three months. Still, a couple of months away from their next drawdown of the grant payment, Sideffect needed immediate cash flow to be able to continue and keep up their momentum, helping them reach key performance indicators along with other business expenses.

This included paying ECU and other contractors. Sideffect had earlier only budgeted for salaries that would have to be paid out monthly. However, since they contracted ECU, that amount had to be paid within 6 months instead.

This is where Fundsquire came in. Rodney said, “You just need someone to listen to you and understand where we were coming from, and Fundsquire did that.”

“Fundsquire was abreast of the grant funding process and knew right away what our requirements were. If we didn’t get the funding through Fundsquire when we did, we would have had to put the whole project on hold.”

Working together

Fundsquire’s Grant Advance funding solution provided Sideffect a smooth cash flow as they looked to leverage their federal grant funding by offering their future, eligible grant capital several months in advance.

In Rodney’s words, “It was the people and speed that won us over. Fundsquire came through a connection, but we did do our due diligence in reaching out to other funding providers. However, their response was too slow, and Fundsquire was abreast of the grant funding process and knew right away what our requirements were.”

For Sideffect, the funding process was seamless. Rodney says, “Because being a non-profit, we get audited every three months, so it was very simple just to produce the financials from each quarter. And the grant drawdown documentation was very easy to put together.”

What funding meant for Sideffect

For Sideffect, Fundsquire’s Grant Advance funding extended their runway across several projects and expenses. This included hiring more people to meet milestones, completing their IT projects such as building a LMS (learning management system) and meeting salary and contractor payment deadlines.

“It was very critical,” says Rodney. “If we didn’t get the funding through Fundsquire when we did, we would have had to put the whole project on hold. And that’s not what we’d want to do, because we were going to launch our learning management platform next month. If we put it on hold, we’d have been five months behind.”

A long term relationship

Since the first funding in 2021, Sideffect has worked with Fundsquire for three more rounds of funding. For Rodney, what he loved about Fundsquire was not just the ease of accessing growth capital quickly, but also Fundsquire understands and believes in the work Sideffect is doing.

He says, “Fundsquire looked at the details of our grant funding closely and went, ‘Yes, we’re going to support this for sure.’ And also, it wasn’t just about giving us the money. We spoke about what our business was and that our mission is to educate kids about the dangers of drugs. And at the same time, our team is a keen group of people who want to be a part of a mission that is giving back to the community. Fundsquire realized the space that we were in, and we’re very keen and happy to help make this vision a success.”

The Final Word

Fundsquire’s Grant Advance funding solution is geared toward helping businesses alleviate some common challenges they face when accessing government grants, and for Sideffect, that is exactly what they were looking for.

When asked if he’d recommend Fundsquire, Rodney said:

“Yeah, of course. I have already recommended you to several companies. You just understand the story, and the team at Fundsquire was really good. I’ve dealt with four people at Fundsquire, and we feel a little bit like family in some way. I highly recommend Fundsquire to anyone who is looking for a lender that understands your business, pays attention to your needs, and makes the lending process as easy, smooth, and upfront as possible.”

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