Become a Master at Grant Applications: Part I

Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance

By Fast Forward’s Business Support Officer, Chris Read

One of my responsibilities as Business Support Officer is to help our Chief Executive and Board raise and secure the funding necessary to sustain our core organisation and to run our different projects. This can be very satisfying when we’re successful, but it can also be a long and sometimes frustrating process.

I would like to share with you some of the hints, tips and pieces of advice I’ve picked up along the way for anyone making applications to grant-making bodies.

1. 1. Know your organization: What is its mission statement? What is its capacity (resources, staff, cash reserves and equipment).
   2. Be aware: What’s happening in the field? What are the recent trends? What issues are current for your client group (the people you help) and your stakeholders (the people associated with your work)?
   3. Decide on a project or piece of work: You will need to agree this with your board, the trustees and governors.
   4. Breathe: Have a rest and a cup of tea. If you’re lucky, one of your colleagues might even have made gingerbread men for the office (thanks, Laura).
   5. Search: Now that you’re fortified, find a suitable grant-making body to apply to: If you are in Scotland, start with the SCVO website. Others include Foundation Scotland, the National Lottery, The Lloyds TSB Foundation, Awards for All, the NHS, your local authority, or the Scottish Government’s websites. To search for even more fundraising opportunities, check the Directory of Social Change (DSC), trustfunding.org.uk, GuideStar, newspapers (including charity vacancies – check who the post is funded by), or the Institute of Fundraising.
   6. Ask: Don’t be afraid to call any of the above organisations for a chat, or ask colleagues and friends to keep an eye out.
   7. Subscribe: Although it can mean a rather full inbox, subscribe to any electronic newsletters, bulletins or blogs in your field because they will often carry funding news.
   8. Decide: Dedicate time to choosing a grant-making body and applying to it. Always have a good look at the grant’s time scale, amount offered, and especially the funding criteria. It’s likely that as a fundraiser you are a valuable resource in yourself, so your time is precious.
   9. Remember: The scattergun approach, however tempting, rarely works.
   10. Use numbers: First of all, the need for your project must be rooted in statistical evidence. The funder will want to know why, for example, an unused public building should be turned into a community centre or why more work needs to be done to tackle a health condition in its early stages. This is why spotting gaps in current service provision is so important.
   11. Check yourself before you wreck yourself: Keep your targets (which are usually called ‘outcomes’) simple and realistic – it’s better to over-achieve a modest target than to under-achieve an inflated target.
   12. Communicate: At the risk of stating the obvious, a good relationship with the funding body is also really useful, and some larger funding bodies have a grant officer whose job it is to help applicants. If you chat to them regularly they will follow your strategic thinking and it will help if you need to change the parameters of your project. You might need an extension to the project or the funding, or you may need to change the primary client group.

To sum up Part I, generally speaking about 60% of fundraising is research while only 30% is writing the application. Each and every application requires a great deal of planning and preparation, and by spending time on this important phase you will save yourself a large amount of time and heartache.

Stay tuned for Part II of this post on how to increase your chances by properly filling out your application…

Visit www.spen.org.uk to sign up for the Scottish Peer Education Network (SPEN) newsletter featuring funding, news and training for peer projects and youth groups.

To contact Chris for advice, write to admin@fastforward.org.uk