For anyone in the third sector in Glasgow it's not March, it's Glasgow City Council Community Fund month (GCC CF). Project funding that can contribute to salaries and overhead for three years - a big deal - so it comes with a big form. These can be really intimidating so here is how go I about tackling a long complicated application.

  1. Check for traps. Look CAREFULLY at the eligibility criteria to make sure I can apply, before getting all excited and wasting time on something I have the wrong legal structure, turnover or charitable objects for. Also check the supporting document list in case there is anything weird I will need to get from someone else. For GCC CF it's Board minutes.
  2. Identify what parts of my work are the strongest fit with the outcomes and indicators. With a big wide fund it's tempting to apply for everything, but you will have a better success rate if you only ask for the activities that fit their outcomes AND INDICATORS most closely. Indicators are the things they will measure and will tell you more about what they are actually looking for.
  3. Identify what activities have the strongest Evidence of Need. Which ones are responding to things people have asked for? How did they ask for them (feedback forms, consultations, social media, local forums/networks)?
  4. Identify what activities have the clearest Beneficiary groups (that meet the fund priorities). This means either it's people you already work with or you can name the oragnisations that will refer them to you.
  5. Make a rough timeline of the activities - how many of each will run within a year, for how long?
  6. Make a rough budget for the total cost of the activities I've identified. I run my Budgeting exercise from The Grant Writing Toolkit to check what People, Things to Buy and Stuff to Hire the activities will take and add 5-10% of relevant operational costs (insurance, phone bills, rent/utilities). Then I'll check against my basic How Much To Ask For criteria (check it out in the Free Lesson Library).

Knowing roughly how much I'm asking for and what it is for helps me so much with drafting.

Then I pull all the meaty questions that need long text answers into a separate document. This helps me feel less overwhelmed by the 40 pages of questions, and means my work is backed up if the form corrupts or crashes. I work through them dropping in notes, copying and pasting relevant sections from other bids.

I spread the work out, only doing a couple of hours max on any given day, otherwise my brain gets too tired.

Once there is a decent amount of material in a question I will turn those notes into a first draft, not worrying about the word count at this point. My aim is make it coherent. I might share this first draft with colleagues, team-mates, the client. I'll colour code sections I want them to look at and include notes about what is missing.

Once my draft is coherent I'll re-read the fund aims and guidelines, have them open while I edit. For each question I'll check I'm using as many of their terms as possible, using headings of what they have asked for in the question to make sure I cover everything. This is when I edit down to the word and character counts, checking for typos and adding extra points as I go.

If you are doing GCC CF or any other big complex form then spread this process out over the next few weeks so that your bid is relevant, strong and coherent.

New Youth Fund

Always great to hear about *new* funds opening! Especially ones with a decent amount to give. The new Jaguar Land-rover Foundation will be distributing £2.5m to UK charities and NGOs (fingers crossed this will include CICs) working to help young people fulfil their potential.

https://www.bettersociety.net/Jaguar-Land-Rover-launches-Foundation-to-support-youth-charities.php


I'll be keeping an eye on this one and flagging it up when deadlines and criteria are released later this year. Hoping for a wide enough brief that it can support a range of youth work.

What I'm Working On

This week I am also working on bids to

Scottish Mountaineering Trust - small grants for outdoor adventure activities, deadline 15 March

Murdoch Forrest - small grants for community and youth work in Scotland, deadline 12 March

Weavers Benevolent Fund - medium grants for UK wide youth work projects, deadline 13 March

plus prepping for a live zoom Fundraising 101 Workshop for the fantastic Articulation Arts, for Scottish street arts and circus artists and organisations. Spots still available here: https://articulation.scot/events/funding-101-intro-to-grant-writing/

Happy Truffling and may the bids be ever in your favour!

Phyllis

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