Writing a Funding or Grant Application

A good project does not automatically produce a good funding application. You may know exactly why the work matters, who needs it and what could be achieved with the money, but the person assessing the application only knows what you have put in front of them.

Your job is not simply to persuade them that your organisation does worthwhile work. It is to demonstrate that the particular project meets the requirements of the funding available and that your organisation is capable of delivering it.

Read the Criteria Before You Write

Funding bodies usually tell you what they are prepared to support. Eligibility requirements, priorities, geographical restrictions, deadlines, permitted costs and expected outcomes may all be specified.

Read them carefully before spending hours on the application. If the fund is intended for a particular purpose, explaining passionately why another purpose is equally worthwhile is unlikely to change the rules.

Pay attention to the language used in the criteria. If applicants are asked to demonstrate need, explain the need. If they are asked about outcomes, describe the outcomes. If they want evidence of community involvement, provide it.

Answer the questions they have asked, not the questions you would prefer to answer.

Explain the Need

Before explaining what you want to do, establish why it needs to be done.

Avoid assuming that the importance of the problem is self-evident. Depending on the application, evidence might include research, statistics, previous experience, demand for an existing service, consultation, waiting lists or information gathered directly from the people concerned.

Be specific. A broad statement that a community needs more support is much less useful than an explanation of what support is missing, who is affected and what evidence you have that the need exists.

Make the Project Concrete

Once the need is clear, explain what you intend to do about it.

The assessor should be able to understand what will happen, who will be involved, who will benefit, when the work will take place and what the funding will pay for.

Avoid relying on attractive but vague phrases such as creating opportunities, increasing engagement or making a positive difference without explaining what those things will mean in practice.

If the project involves twelve workshops, say so. If fifty people will receive a particular service, explain how that figure was reached. If volunteers will deliver part of the work, make their role clear.

Enthusiasm Is Not Evidence

You should believe in the project you are asking someone to fund, but enthusiasm cannot do all the work.

Claims such as innovative, essential, unique or transformative need something behind them. What makes the approach different? Why is the service essential? What evidence suggests that the proposed work will produce the intended result?

A measured explanation supported by evidence is usually more convincing than a page full of superlatives.

Outcomes Are Not Activities

It is easy to confuse what the organisation will do with what the project is intended to achieve.

Running a training course is an activity. The knowledge or skills participants gain may be an outcome. Producing an information booklet is an activity. Helping a particular group find or understand important information may be the intended outcome.

Where the application asks for outcomes, explain the difference the work is expected to make and, where possible, how you will know whether it made that difference.

Keep those expectations realistic. Promising to transform an entire community with a small six-month project is unlikely to make the application more credible.

The Budget Has to Tell the Same Story

The written proposal and the budget are two versions of the same project. They should agree.

If the application describes a substantial programme of activity but the budget contains no obvious provision for delivering it, questions will arise. The same is true when a significant cost appears in the budget without being explained anywhere in the proposal.

Check calculations, quantities and totals carefully. Make sure the amount requested matches the amount stated elsewhere in the application and that costs fall within the funder's rules.

Do Not Assume They Know Your Organisation

A long-established organisation can easily forget how much background knowledge its own staff, trustees, members or volunteers share. Assessors may not have any of it.

Explain enough about the organisation to establish why it is capable of carrying out the proposed work. Relevant experience, expertise, partnerships or previous results may all help.

This does not require a complete history of the organisation. Include the information that gives the assessor a reason to have confidence in this project.

Use the Space You Are Given

Application forms often impose word or character limits. Treat them as part of the task rather than an inconvenience to be defeated.

If you have 300 words, decide which information is essential before trying to squeeze 600 words into the space. Repetition, lengthy introductions and general descriptions of the organisation can consume room that is needed for evidence and explanation.

Shorter does not have to mean less convincing. It means every sentence has to earn its place.

Give Someone Else the Application

Before submitting it, ask someone who was not closely involved in writing it to read the complete application alongside the funding criteria.

Can they understand the need, the project and the intended outcomes? Can they see where each important criterion has been addressed? Do the figures agree? Are there statements that make sense only because everybody inside the organisation already knows the background?

Funding decisions are made on the application that is submitted, not on the project you could have explained if somebody had asked another question. Make sure the document gives the assessor the information needed to make the strongest possible case for supporting your work.