"Smart Sourcing" for Funding and Grants

On 6th May 2019 a grant making trust published the following:

We are giving ￡1m to charities. We want to put our giving directly into the hands of remarkable organisations (like yours perhaps) that are changing people’s lives for the better. Our ￡1,000 awards are open to eligible charities registered in the UK and Republic of Ireland - these could range from smaller volunteer-run groups to larger, well-known organisations. Our ￡50,000 awards are open to eligible charities registered in the UK and Republic of Ireland with an income of less than ￡5m, which support a cause that we know our communities care about. Please read our full terms and conditions, to see whether your charity is eligible to apply. Giving ￡1m to deserving causes. Our ￡1m giving programme has two funding categories:

￡1,000 donations to 500 charities

￡50,000 grants to 10 charities

The problem is that the deadline is 17th May that allows just 9 days for organisations to respond! many sponsors of deserving projects will not get to hear about this opportunity until it is too late.

Time was when the main research tool for finding sources of grant aid was the paper directory, published annually, possibly with quarterly updates. Then came the database CD, and more recently the online database. But even these take time to update and it is likely that the opportunity above will be missed. A "Smart" solution, now being used by a significant number of organisations. The solution provides twice weekly email notices of funding and grant opportunities as they are published. This is the new "Smart Sourcing". There is evidence that fund raising and business development departments spent up to 80% of their time simply researching funding sources. "Smart Sourcing" has been shown to turn this around with just 10% of time spent on finding sources with 90% spend on bid preparation with the commensurate increase in bidding success.

We are seeing more and more public funding using traditional funding and grant making mechanisms under the "Light Touch Regime" as set out in the 2016 PCRs purchasing was enshrined in the 2015 EU Procurement Directive. The government worked hard to ensure that a more flexible approach to procurement was made available for health and social care purchasing.

"Smart Sourcing" does not just apply to charitable funding. It includes ESF/ERDF from EU sources. ESF covers revenue projects typically linked to employment opportunities; ERDF is mainly capital, but can also include revenue for business development activities. This money comes match funded by central government and the promise that the EU element will continue from the UK government, post Brexit.

One of the secrets of successful bidding is knowing the difference between "claim" and "evidence". All successful bids include strong evidence to support the proposed activity. Funders look for accurate, referenced information and statistics to support claims made in bids. The highest quality evidence is sourced from actual government documents rather than interpretations. "Smart Sourcing" provides links to government documents within a couple of days of publication. This body of knowledge can lead to success or failure in a competitive bidding situation.

"Smart Sourcing" is the way forward in the current competitive marketplace. This is especially true for health and social care providers as well as charities of all types and sizes. You can read more on our website at www.tenderingforcare.com