Put yourself in the shoes of the funder – consider what you would want to know in their position, and how you would like this information to be presented. Listed below are some of the key principles for a good funding application.

Clarity and conciseness
Access group’s background
Reliability, efficiency and cost effectiveness
Demonstrate a clear need
Relevancy
How money will be used
Total budget
Monitoring and evaluation

Clarity and conciseness

A clear, concise application helps funders deal with the large number of applications they receive. The following needs to be immediately apparent to anyone reading your application:

• who is applying
• how much they want
• what they want it for

Access group’s background

Funders need to know something about the group and its work in order to ensure that the money will be well spent. For example, they might need to know:

• how long the group has been going
• what has been done so far – successes and achievements
• what the legal structure of the organisation is
• how many volunteers/members of staff there are
• what kind of area it operates in (rural or urban, for example), and any particular problems the area faces (such as poverty)
• what kind of support the group gets locally

Reliability, efficiency and cost effectiveness

Funders will be looking for evidence that an organisation is efficient and cost effective. Your group needs to be meeting legal requirements and following good practice in management. What others think of your group often holds a lot of weight: funders need to know that the group has credibility with the users of the service, with other funders and possibly with other agencies in the area.

You can help to demonstrate to the funders that your group is well run by demonstrating/offering:

• good book-keeping/accounts
• a business plan or strategy
• a good reputation with other funders
• knowledge of where to get help if you need it (such as from Local Voluntary Councils)
• good planning
• robust policies and practices
• audited accounts
• a constitution that reflects your aims and values
• effective management plans
• evidence of consulting your or community of interest
• management of partnerships, such as terms of reference, formal agreements, contracts
• positive press articles/media coverage

Demonstrate a clear need

To ensure that the money is used well, a funder needs to know exactly what the problem is. What need will the money help to meet? The problem should be:

• the result of demand by real people
• concrete, not abstract
• to do with people’s needs, not just a lack of something
• urgent
• solvable, specifically using the support offered by the applicant

You will have to show funders how you know that there is a particular need in your community. Personal knowledge and experience can be a useful indication, but it is important that you have evidence to support your ideas. There are a number of ways in which you can do this.

You will need to provide hard facts about numbers of users and potential users as well as people’s opinion’s and ideas. It is particularly important that you keep good records of the use of your group and ask people for their views about improvements and changes they would like to see. You might like to incorporate the following into your application:

• statistics
• research, surveys and questionnaires
• records of use of existing activities
• views of professionals, such as health and social services
• awareness of local and national issues affecting your group

Relevancy

Funders need to know that the problem is one that should concern them, and one that they are empowered to fund. A trust that targets homeless young people is unlikely to consider requests to fund an older person’s gardening scheme, no matter how good the cause.

How money will be used

For a project, a funder will want to know who does what, to whom and by when. For a capital purchase (such as a piece of equipment or building), what will be bought, and how will it add value to the work of the organisation? Then how will it be maintained once the capital cost is met?

Funders like to see that the effect of their grant may be greater than the actual sum of money suggests – this is known as added value. This can be particularly relevant for projects that use volunteers. Try costing up how much it would cost to employ people to do the work of the volunteers.

Total budget

A funder might want to know the total amount of money being put into a project, even if it is not all coming from them. The budget your group presents to the potential funder should be:

• clear
• comprehensive
• accurate
• realistic and not over inflated
• clear about other funders involved and any other support
• clear about what will happen when the grant runs out

Too many funding applications fail because they do not state exactly how much they are asking for and how it will be used.

Monitoring and evaluation

If a funder is considering giving a grant over time, they would want to know that the group is achieving its aims over that period. Letting funders know how work will be monitored and evaluated can reassure them that their money will be well spent.