Guidance on writing successful grant applications. Guidance on writing successful grant applications

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1 Guidance on writing successful grant applications Guidance on writing successful grant applications One of the major obstacles to delivering community activities is how to actually pay for it. Fundraising is one option but there may be competition on how to use this money and it may not raise enough money. Another method is to deliver activities as services for other organisations that pay a fee in return. However, participants may also have to pay a fee, which may limit the benefits from the projects. Providing services is certainly an option in same cases but may not always be possible, particularly when an organisation has no history of delivering similar schemes. An alternative method is to secure grant aid to finance community projects. Securing grant aid is not without its own difficulties. Who to apply to? The varying application processes can seem bureaucratic and burdensome. The time waiting for a decision on an application that could be rejected can be frustrating and ultimately disappointing. This guide whilst not offering a magic solution will hopefully help you to identify an appropriate organisation for funding and provide some information about what is required to complete a successful application. It provides some generic advice on what a good application will demonstrate and how to write a strong application to the appropriate funding programme. Contents [hide] 1 Grant Aid Applications: A few tips for success 2 Writing an application: Things to do 3 Supporting Information 4 Summary 5 Links Grant Aid Applications: A few tips for success Grant aid organisations will request different types of information and varying levels of detail. The general rule is the more funding requested the greater the level of detail and supporting documentation required. Programmes with lower maximum funding amounts, often below 10,000, may only request in addition to a completed application form your constitution, your accounts and financial projections. The following provides some general guidance on writing an application and the type of information and documentation that may be requested. Pre-application: A purpose of grant aid is to help organisations improve their performance by increasing their resources to achieve more. However, the grant making organisations have their own objectives and the organisations they fund need to help them to achieve them. Any project funded therefore has to have an element of mutual benefit between the two organisations. Therefore grant

2 aid tends not to be a blank cheque but usually has conditions of funding attached to ensure it is aligned to the funder s objectives and rules. The first thing to consider is whether securing grant aid is the best method of funding your project. For example can you fund the project from your own resources or would it be suitable for sponsorship? If you are going to attempt to secure sponsorship a different approach is required. A business case for the sponsor would need to be identified. In other words what will they get out of it that will help their business, such as promotional opportunities to people who may buy their product or service? Once you have decided grant aid is the most appropriate method of funding your scheme, you need to identify the most appropriate organisation to apply to. Eligibility and choosing an appropriate grant organisation: After selecting some grant organisations with a programme that seems to fit your proposal read their guidance notes carefully and ensure you can satisfy all the eligibility criteria. You should also consider their strategic funding priorities to see how closely your proposal meets them. The more priorities you can meet the better your chance of success. Larger grant requests require more strategic justifications such as meeting local authority objectives or agendas such as in health or safer and stronger communities. If they give the success rates of applications it may enable you to make a judgement about your own chance of success. You should also check their levels of funding and their average grant levels, if possible. There is no point in applying for more than they award and also if you are applying for more than their average grant you will have to make a strong case for funding. Contact the grant giving organisation: If allowed telephone the organisation to discuss your proposal, get some guidance and establish a point of contact. It may save a lot of wasted time and energy if they discourage an application at this point. They may also provide some useful guidance and hints. Another benefit of speaking to the organisation is the actual personal contact. Although application processes can seem impersonal and bureaucratic you should remember they are managed by people. If you build up a relationship with an individual they can be a good advocate at the organisation for your project and can provide you with more tailored advice than their guidance notes. Remember they can often make or break your application so give them the respect they deserve! Personal contact may not always be possible and processes vary but at least by contacting the organisation you may be told whether your project is worth making an application or not. Writing an application: Things to do Good Planning: Once you have checked an appropriate organisation to apply to you need to plan how to write your application. It is important not to rush an application, you may understand the benefits of your project but the funder will not unless you can clearly represent it and justify the need for the project within an application.

3 Planning the Project What will the project do? How will the project outcomes meet the funding priorities? When will the project be delivered and meet its intended outputs and outcomes? Who will be responsible for managing and delivering the project? Planning the application Can you provide all the further information requested and how will you answer the questions in a way that maximises your chances of success? You should take time to consider the budget and make sure it is realistic as many organisations will not increase their grant if costs subsequently increase. Consider the time frames: you need to make sure the decision will not be too late for your project. They will not bring a decision forward for you as they have their own internal timescales to adhere to such as board meetings. Make sure you can explain what the grant buys and why the grant is needed. Can you justify the financial need for a worthwhile scheme and demonstrate you have exhausted all other potential funding (if this is requested as some bodies will only offer grants when there are no other funding possibilities). Answer the question: Assume the grant assessor knows nothing about your organisation or your proposed project. Provide clear answers that are specific to the question in a concise a manner as possible. Project Description: Provide a clear description of the proposed project such as the planned activities and who will be the beneficiaries. Explaining what the project will achieve and ensure it explains how it will meet the funding priorities. Include the project s timescales such as a proposed start and end date, if applicable. Try to sell your project as something that is distinctive or that offers something different, this will make it more attractive to the funder as they will receive their own benefits from funding innovative schemes. The description should provide a clear project proposal with outputs / outcomes. You can not have a general project idea it must be clear what you want to achieve and how it will be achieved. What is the need for the project: The application will generally have to demonstrate a recognised need for the project. Why is the project important? Who have you consulted to identify unmet demand such as a locally identified need? How will the project meet this identified unmet demand? You may need to provide evidence that justifies the case for the project. Explain how the need was identified such as by research, consultation or is it identified as strategic importance by a relevant organisation such as the local authority. Community Benefit: Most grant programmes will require applications to demonstrate how the project will benefit the wider community. To satisfy this condition you need to evidence who will benefit, such as priority user groups which should be specified in the funding programmes guidance notes. Explain whether you have established partnerships with community groups who will benefit from the proposed project. If you can provide forecasts on the number of users it will help to demonstrate the community benefit from your proposed project, many funding programmes will request this information anyway.

4 Financial Information: Provide a clear and realistic budget that adds up, request a specific sum of money and identify where the remaining projects costs will be found (if applicable). Financial forecasts will probably be requested that detail income and expenditure possibly for both the actual project and for your organisation as a whole for the next three years. Your most recent annual accounts will probably be requested. If you are buying equipment include quotes where possible. If you are employing staff include salaries and job descriptions. If you are building a facility include estimates or confirmed costs if possible. Whatever the project is evidence how the costs have been calculated. Grant giving bodies tend to prefer to fund organisations that contribute some of their own funds to a project, although this may not always be necessary especially for smaller grant requests. So if possible contribute some funding to the project, unless it is for a grant offering 100% of project costs. Financial contributions also demonstrate the viability of an organisation. They may also like to see evidence that you have exhausted other potential sources of funding. If your accounts show larger reserves explain what they are ring-fenced for and why you can not use them for this project. Or use them instead! Outputs/outcomes: Outputs are measurable products such as a new facility, a product or a service provided. Outcomes are benefits related to the project such as from the outputs. They are changes and benefits that are generated from the project. They could be reduced crime levels, more people participating in sport or improved literacy. Indicators of the project being successful: Linked to the identified need and the identified outputs/outcomes some measurement of success may be required, such as a target for the number of participants and/or reduced crime in the area. Project Management: A successful application requires more than a good project idea it must demonstrate the applicant has the skills to manage and deliver the project proposed. This is more relevant as the grant request increases. To satisfy this requirement the application should show how the project will be managed and that the applicant has the required skills. If a partner organisation is delivering the project then their skills and experiences will need to be included. If the project includes employing staff then the appropriate procedures and policies will need to be in place. Sustainability: A grant organisation may request information regarding the sustainability of the project, this may relate to a number of factors. It may be how the project will continue after the funding ends, such as it will be self financing. It could mean the project has an exit strategy for the project. An example of an exit strategy would be for the participants to join a club or to leave a legacy of qualified coaches. The other possibility is the project is of limited time frame with all the intended outputs/outcomes and identified need satisfied. Summary: The application should demonstrate: what you want to do (the project), why you want to do it (identified need), what it will achieve (the project outputs/outcomes which should be aligned to the funding priorities), and how you will do it. If the application can demonstrate all of these it should offer value for money and have a good chance of being successful.

5 Supporting Information In addition to the application additional information may well be required. For smaller grants this may be no more than your annual accounts, your constitution and possibly some financial forecasting. As previously mentioned the larger the grant request the more additional information that is required. Larger requests may need to make a more strategic case for funding such as the support of the local authority, a sports national governing body, a specialist agency or meeting agendas such as social or health related. Accounts: Your most recent accounts are usually requested as part of your application. Requests for three recent bank statements may also be requested. Development Plans: Depending on the type of project various development plans may be requested, although this generally only applies to larger funding requests. These may include business plans, sports development plans, community development plans and action/work plans for the projects delivery. There are many sources of guidance for these plans. Often these are requested as part of the development process which may follow the initial application submission. Evidence of need: Projects should respond to communities needs and therefore satisfy an identified unmet demand. Some applications may require referee s statements but even if they do not they can help demonstrate the need for the project. To demonstrate demand the beneficiaries should be identified and should offer their support for or participation in the project. For example, if the project is working with schools it is helpful if they are identified and confirm their participation as part of your application. If the project meets a local authority priority include reference to this and/or get the written support of your local authority. Larger grants are often outcome focused. Therefore you need to clearly demonstrate the benefits of the project and how they meet an identified need. Facility Development: If you are applying for capital work on a building you will need to demonstrate sufficient security of tenure for the site, probably a lease-hold for the requested amount of years or ownership of the freehold. A rule of thumb is for requests over 50,000 at security of tenure for at least 21 years is requested. Organisational Status: Nearly all organisations will request a constitution or memorandum of association / articles of association or a trust deed. For supporters trust your model rules would be appropriate. Partnerships: Larger grant requests will require evidence of partnership working. To demonstrate this you will need to show other organisations are involved in the project. The partner will have a need for the proposed project you will deliver or alternatively they will have the necessary skills to help successfully deliver the project.

6 An example would be for a school s literacy project with free match tickets for the children included the partner would be the school, the club and any other organisations involved in the project s development or delivery. Risk Analysis: For larger funding requests any potential risks may need to be identified and methods of mitigating this risk also demonstrated. General risks include time, cost, reputation, quality, scope of the project changing, benefit, and people/resources. More specific may be cultural and social risks. Summary Not all the information included in this guide will be relevant to every funding programme. There are no hard and fast rules. Charitable trusts have more flexibility and discretion when offering grants as they are not beholden to government targets and regulations, where as public sources of funding may have more stringent criteria and conditions. The key is to study the guidance notes thoroughly. The guide though should shed some light on what grant organisations may expect generally from an application to be successful and also provide some guidance on terms and questions often included in an application process. Remember Supporters Direct can assist you with the process of developing grant applications. Good luck!