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From one-off donations to long-term giving, or designing your personal philanthropic strategy, we work together to help you realise your giving ambitions.

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You have the vision for making a difference. So do we. We help you plan how to give based on your goals.

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Helping your charity or social enterprise become more resilient.

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Discover the latest insights for donors and charitable organisations to help create a greater impact

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About us

We are a leading charity, working at the centre of the giving world. We help donors to give more impactfully and charities to build their resilience so they can do more of their life-changing work.

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A guide to writing a great grant application

Understanding how to put together a great application will increase your chances of gaining the funding you need

Increased demand for funding has left grantmakers inundated with applications and competition is rife. Understanding how to put together a great application will increase your chances of gaining the funding you need for critical projects, however large or focused they are.

Making sure that you are able to clearly define your organisation’s need for funding and how it will benefit your cause and the communities you serve is vital.  

Kate Peters, Director of Grantmaking at Community Foundation for Surrey, outlines some of the key things to think about to help you write a successful application.

What makes a great grant application?

What makes a great grant application?

The applicant has to create a compelling picture of their organisation and the difference that their organisation makes to the issue that they’re trying to address or the communities that they’re trying to work with.

Yes, it needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end - but the funder will be reading hundreds and hundreds of applications and they’ll need to find a way to sift through them.

So, get the points that you want to across in a succinct and punchy way. The stories can be told later, hopefully, when you get the grant.

The organisation also needs to evidence their deep understanding of the issues that they’re working towards.

Ask for an appropriate amount of funds. Funders will compare the amount of money that you’re asking for to the activities that you want to deliver and to your income as an organisation.

Some applicants will ask for much more than their income - or an amount of money that would be very difficult for them to manage. 

If your income is £10,000 and you’re asking for £20,000, that will create a lot of concern for a funder, so make sure that there’s a correlation between the amount of money that you’re asking for and the activities that you’re going to deliver - and what you as an organisation can manage in terms of money.

What should you have in place before you apply?

 

Can you apply for a second grant?

What are common mistakes to avoid?

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