Crafting Good Grant Applications

Who doesn’t like the idea of “free money”? I mean money that you can get for something without having to pay it back and not paying interest on it. For businesses, it also means that they can get some money without having to give away any “equity”, or part ownership of the business. A grant is money that does that. Grants may be given to individuals or households, charities, non-profit organisations and sometimes profit-making businesses too. And they may range in size from a few hundred pounds to several millions.

Who may give grants:

1)??? Central Government – This may be the UK Government or the devolved governments in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

2)??? Local Government – This will be local councils.

3)??? Other public bodies – These may be bodies that are funded by government but which have some autonomy such as NHS Trusts/Boards, universities, the Arts Council, Natural Resources Wales etc.

4)??? The National Lottery – gives out money to a range of different causes.

5)??? Charitable Trusts /.Foundations – These will usually have been set up by philanthropists in the past and continue to give out money to causes they deem worthy.

6)??? Large Companies – will often have Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes which may give some grants or donations to charities or other good causes.

It is very rare for grant recipients to be able to spend the money on whatever they want. Grants will usually be earmarked for a specific purpose which may be:

1)??? Building programmes – This may be the construction of new buildings or the renovation and extensions to existing ones.

2)??? Purchase of equipment – Usually some items that will enable the organisation to operate more effectively or efficiently, such as IT hardware or software.

3)??? Green technologies – Grants may be given towards acquiring tools that will enable operations to be carried out in a more environmentally friendly manner.

4)??? Employment of staff – Although grant providers usually prefer to give money for capital projects as cited above, they may sometimes help towards the cost of employing some key staff. This however will often be for a time-limited period.

5)??? Training and development – Grant funding can be used to improve the skills of an organisation’s staff.

So you have decided that you might be interested in applying for a grant. The following will help improve your chances of success:

1)??? Decide what you need the money for, be as specific as you possibly can.

2)??? Be clear about why you need that money. How will it make your organisation work better?

3)??? Work out how much you will need.

4)??? Match funding - If possible make sure that part of your project’s costs will be met in another way, e.g. reserves, a loan, private donations (if you’re a charity)

5)??? Do your research into who might be able to offer such a grant. There is a new UK Government website that you can look at and which gets updated regularly (https://www.find-government-grants.service.gov.uk/) For charities or voluntary groups the Directory of Grant Making Trusts, will have information about charitable foundations that give out grants. A copy of this book will be in the reference sections of most public libraries.

6)??? Make sure that the organisation you decide to approach does give grants towards what you’re looking to fund!

7)??? When it comes to writing your application, some organisations (usually smaller charitable trusts) will want you to write them a letter, others will ask you to complete an application form with specific questions in it. Be concise and answer the questions to the point.

8)??? Tell them what they want to hear! – Read carefully what the organisation’s objectives are and what they are trying to achieve with the grant and tailor your application to convince them that what you want to do with the money will help achieve that goal.

9)??? Stand out from the crowd – The chances are that you will be up against stiff competition, so it’s very important to say why they should support you rather than others. What’s unique about you? What can you do that others can’t and how do you do it better?

10) ?Demonstrate success stories – If you can showcase some examples of what you have done and successes you’ve had (and produce testimonials) you will paint a picture of yourselves as someone who is worth supporting.

11) ?Provide data – It is always good if you can also come up with some figures about your success and the impact of what you do, and how the grant will enable you to do more of it. That way the organisation will be able to calculate what outcomes can be achieved for a given amount of money.

12) ?Be SMART – Many of you will be familiar with SMART objectives. Make sure that what you want to spend the money on and the results that it will have are Specific, Measurable (i.e. setting yourself targets by which you can measure how well you’re meeting your objectives), Achievable, Realistic and Timebound (set timescales and deadlines to achieve different objectives) Make this clear in your application.

13) ?How you will monitor the spending – The organisation awarding the grant will need to be satisfied that you will have effective ways of monitoring that the grant money is spent wisely and delivering results. You will need to work out a way of doing this. In the case of larger grants you may be required to report to the organisation after the grant has been awarded.

14) ?Proofread your application before sending it in! Having an application with typing errors in it is not going to create a good impression!

15) ?And finally, do not spend the money until you’ve been awarded the grant. If you’ve done that and then think that the grant can simply reimburse you afterwards, the organisation can turn round and say that you don’t need the grant after all and withdraw the offer. I have seen that happen!

Of course following the above advice will not guarantee the success of any grant applications you make. You may well have to try it and practice several times before you get success. But it will substantially improve your chances. Good luck!

If you would like a no obligation discussion on how we at Tenders and Grants might be able to further help you, just drop us a line.