Grant Funding Support

Whilst sustainable change should be the core focus of our EDI-activities, we recognise that grant funding is often a key first step. This might be from larger national pots, or smaller community charities and organisations that distribute funding to help specific communities.
The guidance below can help you to structure your bid and evidence the need for your work.

Louise Key, our Lincolnshire Netball Development Officer has provided these handy tips to consider when you are making a grant funding application.

Getting ‘Funding Ready’

1. Carry out local consultation
   Be certain that you have community buy in and evidence that you've carried this out e.g. questionnaire/surveys and their results.
   Combine that with local information. For example, if it's for a new court, how many children (and their age groups) live locally and would benefit from what you hope to provide. Funders will often refer to this as evidence of need.

2. Have a project plan!
   What do you want to do?
   Where do you want to do it?
   What is the timeframe from start to finish?
   Who is responsible for what?

3. Include the details
   Get quotes, tenders and permission for the project. You need to know exactly what your costings are in order to put in a funding application. Make sure the budget you submit matches the quotes you have. Be aware of timeframes on quotes and make sure they will remain valid. If you're planning an event on land that's not your own make sure you have permission from the owner.
   
   

Your Bid

1. What makes your bid special?
   Why should your organisation be the one to deliver this project? Remember, you're competing against other organisations for the same pot of funding. You need to stand out.

2. Be clear
   What do you plan to do and back up what you're saying with facts and figures wherever possible. What kind of participant are you going to attract? What are their needs (reducing social isolation, loneliness, raising awareness of culture and history etc). This helps show “evidence of need”. You can use the stats in the ‘Supporting Information’ section below to support this.

3. Be concise but not dismissive.
   Focus on the project, it's important for the funder to know you have a venue to hold your event in or the land to deliver your project but don't let it pull the focus from the project itself.

4. Use bullet points
   These focus the reader's eye and really helps funding organisations to be able to identify what's important.

5. Be positive in your wording.
   Don't use terms like “we would like to”; tell them “we intend to”.
   Let them know this is a well thought out project: this is what we're going to do, this is how we're going to do it and this will be the impact/outcome (people/communities/environment).
   In many ways it's easy to write about what you intend to do with your project. It's often harder to prove the impact in a bid, you haven't actually done the project yet but do remember the “so what”.

6. Eligibility Criteria
   Make sure you read it! Don't waste your time completing a form for a grant you're not eligible for. Also, and most crucially, be able to back up any statements you make. If you say your project will improve mental health, wellbeing, community cohesion etc. tell them how. Don't just say it because you think it's what the funder wants to hear.

7. Don't ‘chase the money’
   Focus on what you're good at and what you're set up to do. Don't just put a bid into a funder because it's there. You could end up with a successful bid and neither the capacity nor the capability within your current setup to deliver it. Find the fund that's most suited to your project.

8. Don't be put off if you have unsuccessful applications.
   Even the best bid writers get knockbacks. Most funders will offer advice to applicants whether successful or not. Take it, and apply it whenever it's offered.

The stats below can be used to strengthen your funding bids by evidencing need. All stats/ quotes include reference to their source which should also be included in your funding application.

For more comprehensive insight and additional stats, we recommend you view the Insight section on each page within Guidance and Resources.