Writing effective grant proposals
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The document provides guidance on writing effective grant proposals, highlighting the importance of aligning proposals with organizational aims and understanding grant types, funders, and assessment processes. It emphasizes preparing thoroughly, understanding eligibility criteria, and creating a clear, evidence-supported case for funding. Ultimately, success in grant applications requires careful planning, a positive mindset, and the building of a strong organizational reputation.
Writing effective grant proposals
- 1. Writing effective grant proposals Nick Poole, CEO, CILIP October 2019
- 2. Introducing CILIP CILIP is the UK’s library and information association. Our mission is “to put library and information skills and professional values at the heart of an equal, democratic and prosperous society”. We do this by: • Helping our members build successful careers in libraries, information science and knowledge and information management • Developing a future-ready workforce in partnership with employers and learning providers • Promoting and sharing standards and best practice and encouraging innovation • Championing diversity, equality, inclusion and social justice in all of our work • http://www.cilip.org.uk
- 3. What is a ‘grant’? • Support (usually financial) offered by a funder to support specific activities, usually following a competitive application process • Usually without expectation of repayment (unlike a loan, financing or capital investment) • Commonly governed by specific conditions • Occasionally requiring in-kind or match-funding support • Mostly restricted (as opposed to donations or revenue, which are mostly unrestricted)
- 4. Who offers grants? • Governmental organisations or departments • Arms-length public bodies • Charitable Trusts and Foundations • Non-profit organisations • Educational charities • Companies • Private individuals (often through a grant making organisation)
- 5. Benefits of grant funding • Supports activity that may not (at least initially) be self-sustaining • Supports speculative or innovative activity for which there is no clear precedent (and for which it would be difficult to develop a business case) • Supports research & development the outcome or exploitation of which may be unknown
- 6. Challenges of grant funding • Funded activities or funder priorities may not correspond to your aims and objectives • Tends to focus on short-term or time-limited projects which establish a longer-term demand on capacity and resources • May require specific methodologies for project management, risk management and financial reporting • Writing grant proposals is time-consuming and costly, and may not result in investment
- 7. Changing attitude to grants • All grant funders are reporting significantly increased competition and a corresponding reduction in the success- rate (from 1 in 6 in one case to nearly 1 in 30) • Increased emphasis on funding going directly to the beneficiaries of the investment, rather than big organisations with big associated costs • Reduced yields on investments is resulting in reductions in available grant funding, particularly for grant-making trusts and endowments • New approaches including social investment or loan finance, not always suitable for capital development projects • Increased tendency towards small/micro-grant programmes (£2-5k) and ‘match-funding’ (whether ‘in kind’ support (access to materials, resources, rooms or other capacity) or direct matching cash support) • Emphasis on ‘additionality’ and outcomes rather than supporting core running costs
- 8. Golden Rule #1 Only apply for grant funding for activities that are consistent with your aims, forward plan and core priorities
- 9. Why do you want the money? • Most grant applications are written on a responsive basis (‘there’s a grant programme, it looks relevant, we should go for it...’) • A grant may provide upfront investment, but it comes with two sets of conditions: i. The short-term obligation to fulfil the conditions of the grant, and; ii. The long-term obligation to sustain the outcomes of the grant-funded activity • A grant seldom exists to enable you to do what you want to do • Grant funding may actually draw valuable time, capacity and resources away from your mission and aims
- 10. Different types of grant funding • Startup funding usually provides investment to get a project or product off the ground • Revenue Grants cover ongoing running costs including salaries • Capital Grants pay for assets such as building costs or equipment • Project Grants usually cover a mixture of costs associated with delivering a project, sometimes including a contribution towards the costs of managing the project • A small number of trusts and foundations provide core or long-term funding support to cover the ongoing running costs of an organisation’s work • Many trusts have Small Grants Programmes which are less resource-intensive to bid for and have a quicker response time.
- 11. Golden Rule #2 Be prepared
- 12. Put your idea together • Grant proposals for well thought-through projects that have a clear case for support are always more likely to succeed – timescales are often too short to bring together a proposal and partners from scratch. • Before going out and seeking funding support, it is a good idea to put some definition around your idea, including: • The need for the project • Who will benefit from the project • How you will measure the impact of the project • The scope, objectives and likely outcomes • An idea of budget or resources • Ideas about partners who can help you deliver • Any research or relevant supporting evidence • Potential funding sources (including an internal resource) • Having your idea in hand means you are going to be in a better position to respond to calls with short timescales
- 13. Seek appropriate funders • Once you have defined your project, objectives and requirements you need to consider who has active or forthcoming grant programmes in this field • Keep yourself informed - funding opportunities may be on a rolling cycle or within a specific window • Look at projects similar to yours (eg. in the trade press), visit the funders websites and sign up for their alerts services • Use information sources like Funding Central to stay on top of forthcoming funding announcements – www.fundingcentral.org.uk • Use social media to follow grant-making organisations for announcements • Take some time to familiarise yourself with the main funders in your field and their strategic aims
- 15. Read the guidance • All funders are different, and the conditions, objectives and scope of every grant programme is different • Funders pour time, effort and resource into developing readable, useful guidance, setting out how you should apply • Most funders are highly specific about the submission process, formats and supporting documentation • The fastest way to see your proposal dismissed is not to comply with these requirements
- 16. Check eligibility early • All funders will give clear guidance about • Types of organisation that are eligible to apply • Types of costs that can and can’t be supported (eg. salaries, overheads or capital costs) • Requirements for match-funding or in-kind support • Many funders now provide ‘Eligibility Checkers’ – short questionnaires or online tools which will give you a broad indication of your eligibility for funding • Ineligible proposals don’t even get read – they are just discarded
- 17. Speak to the funder • Some funders prefer to have a pre-application dialogue about the scope and appropriateness of your proposal, others are too inundated with speculative applications to discuss every one. Always tailor your approach to their guidance. • A significant number of funders (particularly Lottery distributors) would prefer to spend time in pre-application support than seeing people waste time and effort on proposals that are out-of-scope or not relevant to their aims • Funders like to know how people are responding to their programme calls so having a discussion with you can be useful insight for them too • A programme or case officer will commonly be aware of the range of proposals under development and will often give you a valuable steer about what to avoid and what to emphasise
- 18. Golden Rule #4 Give yourself time
- 19. Preparing your submission • Putting a good grant proposal together takes time – you can do it in evenings & weekends, but your chances of success (and sanity) are much higher if you treat the development of the proposal as a project • Don’t leave it until the weekend before submission – many grant funders require letters of support, documentation or other evidence which you will need time to collate • Always download everything, read through it and familiarise yourself with it before you start drafting.
- 20. Use stories and data • Funders are human, like everyone else, they respond to a good solid hearts-and-minds story and hard evidence • Many funders have one eye on the press release announcing a media-friendly list of eye-catching projects – help them get there • Don’t just focus on the facts – create drama, give insight. Why now? What will happen if the project doesn’t go ahead? Why is the situation unique or compelling? • It is useful to adopt a ‘success mindset’ – cast your mind forward to the successful outcome of the project and then write the bid from this perspective. Use ‘will’ rather than ‘would’ or ‘might’.
- 21. Define the problem • Don’t focus on your organisation, venue or collection as the problem – focus on the problem to which your organisation, venue or collection is the solution • Very few funders will support core or ongoing costs (although some will – always check their criteria) so you need to be clear that the proposal is addressing a clear problem, not just propping up your income • What is the problem you’re trying to solve (eg. lack of participation by children and young people, need to improve educational services to reach non-engaged communities) and how does your proposed project solve it? • The best solutions always come from a well-defined problem!
- 22. Create a credible workplan • Funders need to know what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it and against what timetable • Observe the requirements of the grant guidelines – give people a clear indication of the sequence of events within the project • Be realistic about costs – under-pricing proposals leads to long-term problems for your organisation • Create a clearly-understandable structure for how you are going to break the work down into deliverable tasks – it is often helpful to visualise these as ‘workstreams’ or ‘work packages’ so that the funder can see how the different strands of work will come together to deliver the outcome
- 23. Golden Rule #5 Understand how your proposal will be assessed (and write it accordingly)
- 24. Common assessment process • First-pass check to verify eligibility • Proposal passed to a case officer or programme manager • Second-pass read-through for relevance/quality/potential impact • Proposal passed to external/expert assessor (depending on programme) • Assessments collated and scored • Long-list of proposals reviewed by case officer or programme manager • Final list signed off for funding
- 25. Assume nothing • Your proposal (much like a CV when applying for a job) may pass through several people for checking before it reaches someone who knows what you’re talking about • Never assume prior knowledge or technical expertise on the part of the assessors • Avoid jargon, expand acronyms, don’t use obscure references (especially self-citation!) • Provide evidence to support your assertions – grant proposals commonly lack clear evidence of need on behalf of the proposed beneficiaries, which can make it hard to assess impact
- 26. Ask people to read your bid • A successful grant proposal is almost never a solo effort • Always ask friends, colleague, family to read through and critique your proposal prior to submission • Don’t be precious about what they tell you – if the core idea isn’t clear, the case for support isn’t compelling or the evidence isn’t strong enough, change it
- 27. See the funders perspective • The funder will almost always provide a context to or rationale for the grant programme • Read through this documentation and try and understand what the funder’s world-view is • Look at the assessment criteria, and review your proposal dispassionately to see how your idea fits with their concept of value • Always quote the funder back to themselves, especially if the quote is from something they’ve published other than the guidance material (it shows you care and aren’t just firing off applications on spec)
- 28. Golden Rule #6 Positive mental visualisation
- 29. Be positive • Every successful bid I’ve ever written has contained the word ‘successful’ • Write from the position of assertion (we will do x,y,z) • If you feel excited about it, let it show • Pictures really help – some people respond to words, others to pictures, so try and ensure that your proposal helps the assessors to visualise what you are proposing to do as well as describing it
- 30. What makes a good proposal? • A good idea • Relevant to the scope and aims of the grant programme • Legible and well-argued • Supported by evidence of need • Realistic in scope, ambition and budget • Proportionate to the problem being addressed • Authentic and honest
- 31. What makes a bad proposal? • Hubris • Dishonest about aims (telling the funder what you think they want to hear) • Disorganised, illegible, repetitive or verbose • Unrealistic or over-ambitious • Not answering the question • Death by citation • Focus on process not outcomes
- 32. Golden Rule #7 Build your reputation
- 33. Reputation really counts • If the assessor has heard of you or your organisation, if they have had a positive prior experience of your work or you are known for successful delivery of previous projects, this is a significant impact on funders and assessors • Profile in the sector and trade press, speaking at events, sharing information all helps build awareness of your organisation as a credible delivery partner.
- 34. Golden Rule #8 If at first you don’t succeed...
- 35. Try, try again • Most grant proposals fail • Always try and focus on the long-term objective, not the short-term outcome of a given programme • Read any feedback carefully and reflect on it • Look for alternate funding sources – the obscure trusts & foundations receive fewer proposals and are often more amenable to ‘core’ collections activities
- 36. Funding Sources for Libraries
- 37. • Visit Gov.UK’s comprehensive guide to Funding Sources for Libraries in UK: www.gov.uk/government/publications/libraries-applying-for-funding/potential-funding-sources-for-libraries • Visit CILIP’s “Working Internationally for Libraries” project webpage for tools & funding resources for UK and International libraries to work together: www.cilip.org/workinginternationally
- 38. Further information We hope you have found this presentation useful and informative. Please do feel free to share it with your colleagues and networks. Further information about CILIP’s work is available from: http://www.cilip.org.uk Further information about CILIP’s “Working Internationally for Libraries” project is available from: http://www.cilip.org.uk/workinginternationally Social media: @CILIPinfo Telephone: +44(0)207 255 500