Ringing Forums

Simon, our situation was different in that we did have a complete rehang, but the arguments for doing it were focused on making the bells easier to ring and teach, improving the sound, and improving the ringing environment (see attached leaflet) which seems to mecho your motives.
Our project was also atypical in that the PCC rolled it into a much bigger project 'Celebrating Community' that inclujded a new community hall and developing the churchyard as a community resource. However it had its own identity and donors could give either to the general pot or to one of the sub projects, and of those who nominated a specific project more chose the tower project than the others, so our cause (improving the bells we rang and the environment in which we rang) would seem to have responated with donors.
The project boosted our community engagement, including creation our website, a significant part of which documents the project: allsaintswokinghambells.org.uk/ASProject/

There may opportunities to appeal to local organisations or individuals to sponsor or part-sponsor individual bells. When we recast & rehung our old unmusical six it was at a time when there was a plethera of changes in local government; old local authorities were being dismantled, some were lost and others were merged. We persuaded our local RDC that their name could be preserved for all time if it was cast on to one of the new bells.
Similarly, languishing in their engineers' depot, the county council had a 4-5cwt bell that had been salvaged years earlier from a redundant methodist church. We asked them to consider donating the bell and we would have it recast with their name on it. This created a surplus of metal for which we were credited by the foundry.
Finally, we issued a public invitation to have the name(s) of departed family members memorialised on the two trebles. This was not successful and produced no significant results but it did generate income from a couple of families who were happy to support the project but without their support being recognised on a bell.
So, keep your ear to the ground. Look out for major local employers/companies/organisations that may be approaching a significant anniversary. Are there any families who carry a lot of influence in the area? Watch out for bells in redundant locations - we actually gathered in five more broken/cracked/redundant bells from four local sources in addition to the one from the old methodist church.

I have managed a few of these projects - very fundable and TBH, can be approached in much the same way as a full re-hang - the aim is after all, the same. Focus on what is good and what need sorting then explain the wide gap and the benefits of the project, which you have already listed. Grant bodies will get you started but the key is identifying local donors, not lots, but just enough that they get a good slice of the pie, so to speak. Casting names into bells is a wonderful way to get sponsorship or, have a scheme where people are invited to sponsor a bell and have their name recorded on a decently sized and located tablet somewhere. Don't bother with high effort/low reward stuff, the world is full of tea towels. One good fundraiser is consumable goods - get something decent that everyone needs (toilet paper?) and see if you can get something branded up with a 20% mark up for yourselves.

As well as paying for bells with an inscription we invited people to ‘buy a headstock’ in return for a small engraved metal plaque attached to it. Six of the eight were payed for like that.