{"id":315,"date":"2018-01-24T20:42:58","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T20:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/?p=315"},"modified":"2018-01-24T20:42:58","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T20:42:58","slug":"what-the-donor-really-really-wants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/?p=315","title":{"rendered":"What the donor really, really wants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image<\/a>I was recently asked to review a funding application, which reminded me of some of the complexities surrounding writing a successful bid, particularly in understanding what the donor really, really<\/em>\u00a0wants.\u00a0 So, with apologies to the Spice Girls, here are a few\u00a0hints that may help you towards finding that perfect match between your work and that of your perspective funder.<\/p>\n

Read what they say<\/strong>.\u00a0 This may appear obvious, but make sure that, if the funder provides guidelines for applicants, criteria for funding etc.,\u00a0you have read and understood them.\u00a0 Without compromising the work you want to do, try, wherever possible, to use the funder’s language and specifically link to the priorities they describe when writing your application.\u00a0 If nothing else, it makes it far easier for those assessing your work to make the links\u00a0between what you do and what they want to fund. Even if nothing of this sort is published, you can often find clues in the way the funder describes themselves or the language they use in documents like their\u00a0annual accounts (freely available from the Charity Commission web site).<\/p>\n

Look what they actually support.<\/strong>\u00a0 What funders say they fund and what they actually fund are not necessarily the same thing (I have written about this elsewhere).\u00a0 It is always worth checking what projects they have funded\u00a0 in the past and seeing if your work matches these.\u00a0 Again, check for the way\u00a0funded projects are described, both by the funder and by the projects themselves; after all they must have got something right to have been successful.<\/p>\n

Finally, don’t be afraid to call<\/strong>.\u00a0 Some funders will specifically say up front that they do not accept contact from applicants and others will tell you that if you get hold of them and obviously you will need to respect that.\u00a0 However, many funders are happy to chat;\u00a0 listen out for what they tell you and the language they use.\u00a0 This could tell you a great deal about the organisation you are applying to, as well as making your application stand out as ‘that one from the nice (hopefully) man \/ women who rang the other day’.\u00a0 You may also consider ringing previously successful applicants to see if they have any tips and advice, most will be flattered to be asked!<\/p>\n

There are lots of other things you can do to improve your chances of funding in what is an\u00a0increasingly competitive environment.\u00a0 Contact me<\/a>, if I can help.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was recently asked to review a funding application, which reminded me of some of the complexities surrounding writing a successful bid, particularly in understanding what the donor really, really\u00a0wants.\u00a0 So, with apologies to the Spice Girls, here are a few\u00a0hints that may help you towards finding that perfect match…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9,3,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charities","category-churches","category-fundraising","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions\/316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}