Applying for funding
Introduction
Order and simplification are the first steps towards mastery of a subject.
This section of the toolkit describes a step-by-step approach to producing a well-founded application. The five steps will be relevant to almost all applications and bids, with more or less of the detail required according to the size and scale of the opportunity. Use the process and task lists as a guide and the tips from applicants and assessors as reassurance and encouragement.
Step 1: Understand the opportunity
Task list
| Check the opportunity is fit for purpose | Use the check list on page 7 to help decide if the opportunity fits your purpose. Undertake a strategic fit analysis to map the need against the opportunity. |
| Check the organisation is eligible to apply | Check who can apply and the basics that must be met, for example the size of the organisation, its turnover, the levels of insurance you must have, the sectors that can access the fund and the type of funding that is available,- revenue, capital or both. |
| Check resources and capacity | Look at the team’s work schedule and ensure you can allocate people and time to both the application process and to delivering the activity if you are successful. |
| Contact partners and sound them out | Get an ‘in principle’ commitment from key partners. If they decline you may have to drop the opportunity. |
| Pre-Engagement Events | Attend pre-engagement such as events, roadshows and online briefings hosted by the funder so that you can learn more about the fund. |
| Use Q&A opportunities | The funder may have a formal question and answer process or be happy for you to contact them ad hoc. Take advantage of it especially if you are unsure about the funds purpose, size or eligibility criteria. Make sure you are aware of any deadlines for questions and be aware that your questions and the answer will probably be shared with other applicants. |
Tips from applicants and assessors:
“It is easy to underestimate the amount of detail required, or the time needed to collate all the information required to prepare & complete the application process.” Applicant
“Do you actually need the grant to deliver or just applying for the sake of it or if feel pressured to by your organisation. If the latter, then think twice!” Applicant
“Read the application form carefully before even beginning to complete the process and ask around your organisation to identify where the skills are that will support the process.” Applicant
“Read the eligibility criteria. When I sat on grant making boards/committee our grant managers and officer generally rejected around 30% because they just weren’t eligible. Don’t miss out on eligibility for simple reasons, for example: no of trustees/directors, two signatories on a bank account, and so on.” Assessor
“The guidance is there for a reason to point people in the right direction for what we are looking for (again a lot of time is taken in trying to help the applicant provide the right information). So checking off the list of asks in the guidance and answering directly in the application form is a good way to start.” Assessor
“Sometimes a funding application is just not right for your organisation (this might not be the right type of fund or may not fit your business at that moment in time) if so, seriously consider whether you should apply. There may be lots of other funds that suit you better or your business outcomes. Consider why you are applying – will this fund help you? Or will it take up a lot of time (of you are successful) and will it be complementary to your organisations goals.” Assessor
“Avoid spending significant time on the application without getting internal and partners’ support for the bid.” Assessor
Step 2: Plan your approach
Task list
| Download and read all guidance, criteria and forms | Make sure you know what information is required and in what format e.g. information to be entered on an online form, or a downloaded form which is then uploaded to a portal, and how additional information is handled. Note also and online form allows external links e.g. to examples of previous work. |
| Identify the relevant core documents | Identify which of your core information and documents that are relevant to the application and update them if necessary. |
| Create a timeline for producing the application | Start with the submission date and work backwards. Leave enough time for missing content to arrive, fact checking and proof reading. Share the timeline with everyone involved and ask them to confirm they can meet the deadlines. |
| Identify the accountable body | It is important to know who will handle claims, payments and money and check any procurement thresholds/process to be followed. |
| Identify a single point of contact | This applies to single organisations and applications with multiple partners. One off and regular funders may want one regular contact and issue them with a log in and password to access documentation. |
| Assemble the team and partners | Identify who needs to be involved in the application and the management and delivery of activity. Solicit support from partners, identify their role and what they can contribute which will be a combination of content, data and financial commitments at the application stage and money, staff and other resources once you get into delivery. |
| Identify the application/bid writer | If you are not writing the application identify your application/bid writer. Brief them and introduce them to the wider team/ partnership. |
| Structure your application (if relevant) | If the funder hasn’t provided a form create a structure for your application to organise the content and ensure is covers all the requirements. Your bid writer may do this for you. Share it will anyone who is contributing content. |
Tips from applicants and assessors:
“Read the funding criteria very carefully and make sure your application demonstrates how you meet it. This is basic but it is so easy to get carried away and tell the funder all about your project and fail to address this point.” Applicant
“Make sure your proposal fits the brief and there is evidence to support why the proposed initiative is needed – don’t try to make something ‘fit’ a set of criteria as it will become really hard to deliver in the longer term. Always make sure you align with the outcomes and outputs the fund is trying to achieve and prepare a strong evidence base around ‘Business need’. I always think about the following basic questions:
What? - What do we want to achieve
Why? - Why is it needed (evidence both in the form of surveys and anecdotal - what is the sentiment telling us - both business and consumer)
How? - How do we intend to deliver the project (delivery plan/milestones/timescale).” Applicant
“The most difficult and arguably the most important is the actual case to support the project. Without concrete evidence which at times can be hard to source then it is always difficult to justify expenditure as well as the potential impact of a project.” Applicant
“Ensure you are clear on the timeframes and the deadline and ensure the relevant capacity in place. Give yourself enough time for writing and reviewing and whatever internal sign offs are required before submission” Assessor
“Think about and present your project proposal in terms of the ‘five’ cases: commercial, economic, financial, management and strategic. If your proposal struggles to describe itself in these terms, then it is likely to be a weak project” Assessor
“Research your subject – don’t assume that the assessor knows it all. Don’t ask for more than you need and be prepared to demonstrate why you need the investment – not just because it’s a nice thing to do!” Assessor
“If you have engaged either external consultants and/or fixed-term employees to deliver a grant-funded project and those individuals do not stay after the end of the project term, then it is important to think about and plan ‘knowledge transfer’ from them to your core paid staff before they leave post otherwise the benefits of your project, however successful, will be immediately lost. If you cannot sustain the benefits in the long-term, then it may be advisable not to proceed in the first place.” Assessor
Step 3: Create content
Task list
| Undertake analysis | Select any of the tools outlined in section 3 and included in the Tools and Templates section that are relevant and conduct analysis. Choose from: stakeholder mapping, cost/benefits analysis, strategic fit analysis, PESTLE, market appraisal etc. |
| Assemble the evidence base | Use the information sources section to provide a pool of information you can draw on to strengthen your application. information on markets, visitors, consumer trends, tourism trends etc. Call on our partners to fill information gaps and refer to the destination manage plan and your own business plan which may provide useful content. |
| Describe the activity you want funded | Explain what you will do and why. Create an activity plan, with a timeline for delivery if the funding relates to a project. Be as precise as you can e.g. Conduct 2 focus group sessions in the US to test the marketing proposition, hold 4 events for tourism businesses to deliver trade readiness training. |
| Create tables, charts and diagrams | Use the Tool and Templates to produce tables, charts and diagrams Visuals stand out and some information is better presented in this way. It also livens up your application. A funder may be assessing large numbers of applications and welcome information that is communicated visually. |
| Gather testimonial material from partners | Testimonials can be a compelling way to demonstrate that what you want to do is needed and that you are a trusted partner. |
| Get quotes from sub-contractors | Develop Request for Quote (RFQs) documents and send them to regular suppliers. If you don’t have a supplier in place for a service, source potential suppliers directly and ask for referrals from partners. |
| Secure match funding commitments | Identify the level of match funding that is needed, the type of match funding required and get commitments from partners in the form of letters of support. |
| Format supporting documents | Supporting documents must often adhere to specifications for formats and file sizes. Ensure you follow the specifications to avoid uploads being rejected and having to reformat or resize documents at the last minute. |
Tips from applicants and assessors:
“Funding bids look at tourism through the economic development and investment lens, therefore the biggest challenge is adopting a new language to describe what we can achieve as a DMO against jobs, talking about Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR), etc….The biggest challenge is turning off your destination marketing head and thinking / talking like an economic development project manager. It’s not impossible, and you’ll end the process with more skills than you started – but it is time consuming and daunting, but the rewards can be great.” Applicant
“Draft, discuss, and draft again! Be aspirational in your plans and outcomes but keep checking back that your application meets the requirements of the funding.” Applicant
“Ensuring you are able to best describe the project you want to deliver rather than ticking boxes that have no relevance to the outcomes (usually government funds).” Applicant
“Try to be very clear about what added value the funding will deliver. Creating a case based on a project failing without the funding can be high risk, but if the project impact is very strongly aligned with the funding stream and the impact is high then this strategy can be valuable” Applicant
“Always research your subject matter and find statistics or studies to back up any claims you make in your application. Local councils will hold geographical and demographical statistics and the www is a valuable source of information – but remember to check its validity!” Applicant
“Fact based, well researched, clear narrative. Be honest! – you will be found out! – If financial information is required – makes sure it adds up!! Put yourself in the assessor’s shoes. If something is life and death – you will need to provide evidence that it is!” Assessor
“I wouldn’t overstate your outcomes and outputs – you might have to stick to them!” Assessor
“Avoid not thinking about your future exit plan when the project comes to an end. After all, a grant-funded project is a series of tasks that need to be completed in order to reach a specific goal. It is important therefore to think about how the ‘project’ will transition, be incorporated into your ‘business as usual’ activities and sustained in the long-term both from staff and revenue resource perspectives.” Assessor
Step 4: Write the application
Task list
| Distil the content | Decide what to include and what can be dispensed with, especially if you have limited space. |
| Sort content into the right sections | Make sure content appears in the right place and that it flows. |
| Decide on key messages | Aim to convey in a clear and concise way the key messages that you want the funder to hear. Extraneous content can get in the way of understanding. |
| Follow the principles of good application writing | Refer to the Core Information and documentsfor guidance on writing style etc. |
Tips from applicants and assessors:
“Funders often ask for the financial information in a different format to how your project or organisation records or accounts for its financial information. It’s worth asking someone else to review your application in this instance to make sure the financial information you do provide actually tells the story you are intending to tell!”” Applicant
“Ensure that the application questions have been answered – a bit like at school – read the question and reread it – answer the question posed and not the question you’d prefer!!” Assessor
“Tailor your information to the questions and word count if applicable – don’t just cut and paste information.” Assessor
“If we are asking for a general answer we will probably state that. It is not the length of the answer we commend it is the fact that it gets straight to the point and answers the question. As assessors we generally have a lot of applications to review and so therefore getting straight to the answer to the question is really important. We just want to be guided to the answer you are giving – so best to get straight to the point” Assessor
“Similar to exam questions – read the question, understand what the point of it is/importance (that is weighting) and then succinctly answer the question” Assessor
“Find ways of making your points (and answers) stand out. This could be bullet points, diagrams or any other way of helping the assessor see your answer. Remember they will be assessing lots of these, and they just want to get to your answer quickly and be able to understand it. It also really helps if it is in plain English and written in a way that even someone not familiar with tourism would understand.” Assessor
“Don’t chance it by suggesting activity or projects that fall outside of the brief” Assessor
Writing guidance
Writing is a skill that is honed over time. If you are an experienced application or bid writer many of the points provided below will be familiar. If you are new to the task, they may help you develop a successful approach to writing applications.
- Use plain language and avoid jargon. Try to use language that the funder will understand and note key words in the guidance which you can reference in your text. It will demonstrate your understanding of their objectives.
- Try to get to know your audience and adapt your style to fit their expectations.
- Be as concise as possible but assume that the person assessing the application knows nothing about your organisation, the project or programme or role that you want funded, or the visitor economy more generally.
- Find out if the funder has any accessibility guidelines for written material such as a minimum a font size, use of colour and diagrams. Make sure your application doesn’t fall foul of their guidance.
- Answer the question and be specific. Make sure you understand what is being asked and respond directly. Don’t be tempted to add irrelevant information to increase the length of the application.
- Write to length, especially for online forms. If there is a character or word count keep within it. If you go over the allocation, information that falls after the cut-off may be automatically discounted, however important.
- Don’t duplicate material. Some questions sound like they are asking for the same or similar information, but this is unlikely. If unsure, ask.
- Leave plenty of time to produce several drafts. Stepping away from your work and then re-reading can often highlight where you can tighten up your text, de-duplicate and reorganise.
Step 5: Check and submit
Task list
| Sense check outputs, outcomes and commitments | Make sure that what you are promising to deliver is proportionate and achievable in relation to the activity and costs you are proposing. |
| Proof-read | Proof-read your application and get a colleague to proof it too. |
| Submit by the deadline | Try to submit 24hrs ahead of the deadline to allow time to handle any unforeseen issues. |
| Check the application has arrived | Check with the named person at the funder’s end of the process. Don’t assume that it has been received. In the case of an online application via a portal you should receive an automatic receipt email. If you don’t check with the funder. |
Tips from applicants and assessors:
“Check you have provided all the information requested (check it twice!).” Applicant
“It may be trivial to say but often applicants ignore the most basic of instructions, such as submitting the application in the wrong format such as a PDF rather than a Word document. Please read the checklist at the end of the application form. Other inconsequential but annoying issues that negatively stand out to the assessor include spelling mistakes and poor grammar. Like reading a newspaper article, the assessor should only have to read your application once in order to get a clear understanding of your proposal.” Assessor
“Check the process for submitting – if electronic check the size of the file and the format of the file that can be sent in case you need to compress the file – if by post / delivery ensure that the delivery method will get the bid to the funder in time and evidence that it has been delivered will be provided.” Assessor
“Check that you have internal (your organisation’s) sign off for the bid to be submitted.” Assessor
“Ensure that any match funding has been approved or demonstrate when it will be approved if this is appropriate for the funding bid.” Assessor
“Get someone else to review all of it the words and the numbers. Ideally someone who has been through the process before and can see it with fresh eyes and point out any potential misunderstandings in the way you have explained your project” Assessor
“Avoid rushing it – it is worth taking your time and perhaps get another team member to check it over before you send it” Assessor
