Writing your application
This page contains information about writing a grant application for funding.
State Clearly what you are going to do
Don’t just say, “We will work with the relevant agencies to encourage young people to be more active”. State how you are going to do this – you need to be specific e.g.
“We will develop a series of basic training programmes that young people will be able to follow alongside their usual day-to-day activities. Each programme will ensure 15 minutes exercise, three days a week.”
How can you guarantee it will work?
You can’t! However, you can show what practical steps you will be taking to ensure that there is every chance of success e.g.
“Local celebrities including Olympic Champion (x) will visit every school and youth club in the area to talk about the health risks they run without proper physical exercise. They will hand out the basic training programmes and demonstrate the different exercises to the children in a hands-on workshop. Repeat visits will be made to the schools and clubs; and activity sessions will be run throughout the summer holidays in which…”
Funders are increasingly risk averse, the more you can reassure them that you have the capacity to deliver the intended benefits of the work, the more likely they are to fund you. This is one key reason why so many funders now ask about your constitution/ your management committee. They want to know that you have a range of professional skills that you can call on to ensure the project works.
Funders don’t like to appear to fail. The excellence of your people, their experience of this kind of work and your organization’s overall track record are all important factors in convincing the donor that their money will be well spent through you.
How will you measure success?
Many grant-makers now view ‘output funding’ – where they gauge the success of the project on the measurable things it achieves. In fact many guidelines will now give a clear indication of the ‘outcomes’ they are looking for. You need to think carefully about the targets you are going to set for the project. One way of achieving this is to describe between one and three benefits that will result each year from this project, giving an indication of how you will know if the project is meeting its overall aim, for example.
Try to give the funder a clear plan of action, again to use the original example…
“Our project will visit each school in the area three times a year; we will visit each youth club at least once a year. This means we will speak to 5,000 children and handout 3,700 training programmes. Based on our previous pilot study we expect 375 children to attend at least one of our holiday activity sessions. And anyone that completes level 8 of the programme will get a certificate personally signed by (x). We aim to present 300 of these certificates at schools and youth clubs each year.”
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council
Town Hall
Castlefield Road
Reigate
RH2 0SH
01737 276000
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