The ingredients of a good application or proposal

Most funders receive thousands of requests each year. Think carefully about how you can make your application or proposal stand out from the crowd. At the very least you should be aware of the traps that could prevent your application getting the attention it deserves.

You will need to make a number of key points, which will catch the funders’ attention, arouse interest in your work, and ‘sell’ your project or proposal. Ask yourself:

• Why on earth should anyone support us?
• What is so important about what we are doing?
• Why is it necessary?
• What will it achieve?
• And why should this particular funder want to support it?

Six essential elements of an application or proposal:

Who you are
Type of organisation, key activities, mission, aims and objectives.

The need you meet
Describe the problem, support this by evidence and say why this is important.

The solution you offer
Be clear about the actual or expected results of your work, and how these will be measured. Be realistic – make sure what you want to do is workable, in reasonable time and gives value for money. Define clearly how you will overcome any problems. Support your case – look at other business areas / communities where a similar project has taken place.

Why you should do it
Need to establish credibility. Why should you be the group to run the project? What is different about the way you do things? How effectively will you manage the project? Sell your case. Success breeds success.

The amount you need
Breakdown of costing e.g. capital versus revenue, budgets, full cost recovery.

The future you have
What happens when the grant funding runs out? Sustainability – emphasis long-term viability.