Anyone else have Olympic fever? While we are always ‘on our game’ when it comes to funding best practice, we thought we’d share our top tips for writing a gold medal grant application – giving your application the best chance of making it to the top of the funders’ pile and securing the ‘grants gold’!
Make sure your organisation is grant ready
Just as you wouldn’t participate in an Olympic sport without extensive training to ensure you are ready for the games, you don’t want to embark on writing a grant application or funding proposal if your organisation is not ready!
At Strategic Grants, we advocate the 80/20 rule when it comes to funding success:
- 80% is attributed to robust internal processes, having strong cases for support and strong funder relationships
- 20% is attributed to the grant application writing
Within every organisation, it’s a coordinated team effort with a strategic approach.
Before you even begin to write your application, make sure you have a clear list of organisational funding priority needs that align with your strategic plan objectives. This will help overcome the last minute “what can we apply for?” and will ensure that only real needs are being presented to funders.
A set of clear key messages that everyone in your organisation is across, and a regularly updated funding priorities list go a long way in making sure you are prepared before you put pen to paper. Click to see the full list of our seven key success factors when it comes to funding best practice.
Read the funder guidelines carefully
Once you’ve established your organisation is grant ready, ensure that your organisation or project is eligible and the project fulfils the funding round objectives.
Grant applications that have strong responses that directly address the funders’ selection criteria, as opposed to including extra (potentially irrelevant) information have a higher chance of making it to the top of the pile. If in any doubt at all, contact the funder.
In fact, initiating funder relationships should be a regular part of your grants prospect identification – do your research, attend briefing sessions where possible, and ring before writing.
Talk the funder’s language
Presume the funder doesn’t know you or your project. Talk their language and highlight alignment between your project and the funder’s goals and objectives. Reading the questions carefully may sound simple, but it’s easy to get side-tracked, especially when you are passionate about the cause.
Funders often review hundreds of applications at a time (yes, the competition is steep just like at the Olympics!), so be as clear and concise as you can to increase the chances of your application being put at the top of the pile.
Include any evidence or results you already have
This will make your application stronger and show funders that you are serious about the project. And ensure that outcomes reporting is built into your overarching grants process, for when your application is successful.
Proofread, proofread, proofread!
Have someone who writes well put the application or proposal together or at least have them review it. And make sure that someone also does a thorough proofread for any spelling or grammatical errors.
Don’t neglect your funder
Just as a dedicated athlete wouldn’t neglect their training after a successful event, you also need to ensure you have a clear plan for what happens next. Funder engagement and stewardship are crucial for sustaining funding relationships.
By being strategic and intentional with your stewardship activities you demonstrate to the funder how vital their support is and how important the relationship is to your organisation and those you serve.
Remember – excellent stewardship can result in repeat funding including being approached by the funder – the ultimate ‘gold medal’ / KPI in a grants program!
Team SG can help with all aspects of your grants program (including helping you find the RIGHT funding through our Grants Expertise Management System (GEMS) – find out more!).