Writing a Successful Funding Application

This short course provides a beginner’s guide to how to write a successful funding application, using the National Lottery Community Fund’s Awards For All online application form as an example. It is designed for people who haven’t written a funding application before, or want a refresher on the fundamentals of writing a successful application in a competitive funding landscape.

What you’ll get from this course:

• The chance to go through a successful funding application and understand how you can emulate it
• Advice on key elements such as writing project outcomes, evidencing co-production and creating an accurate budget
• Time to start sketching out your own application, ask questions and get expert advice
• The chance to step back and decide what you need to do next to lay the foundations for a strong application for your project

We’ll be covering:

• Why Awards For All, and what do they look for in an application?
• Walking through all the main answers from a successful Awards For All application
• Describing your project activities, outcomes and impact
• Demonstrating consultation & co-design (a key feature that funders look for)
• Writing clearly and concisely when faced with a tight word count
• Developing a budget that funders understand and that reflects the true costs of your project
• Identifying gaps in your application and how to address them

Who should attend

Writing Successful Bids is an introductory course aimed at people who would like to learn some of the core principles for writing successful grant and funding applications.

You may have started a social enterprise and be trying to attract new income, or you may be part of a fundraising or development team within a charity and looking to boost your skills.

This course is open to anyone.

If you aren’t sure that the course is right for you, email David, david.mcglashan@sse.org.uk and we can discuss it with you in more detail.

Date and Timings

Dates for the course are as follows:

• Wednesday 22nd March 2023

The course runs from 10am to 1pm (including breaks) and includes a mix of presentation content, question and answer sessions, and time to begin sketching out your own funding application and action plan.

Course facilitators

Mike Zywina is an experienced fundraising consultant and Director of Lime Green Consulting. Mike Zywina is an experienced fundraising consultant and Director of Lime Green Consulting. Lime Green Consulting help ambitious charities and social enterprises to be more strategic, become more sustainable or access new funding – they provide a mix of strategic consultancy, hands-on fundraising support, training and mentoring. Mike was previously Fundraising Manager and a member of the Senior Management Team at Link Community Development, overseeing a thriving fundraising portfolio raising £600,000 per year.

Gemma Pettman helps charities to raise both their profile and vital funds. She’s supported causes ranging from city farms to youth unemployment. Demonstrating impact through storytelling is a crucial part of Gemma’s work, particularly when applying to trusts and foundations. As well as raising much-needed income, she has received praise from funders for her use of sincere and straightforward language.

Price

For this one day workshop  plus all course materials you pay:

Organisational turnover £1m + - £169

Organisational turnover £500,000 – £1m - £149

Organisation turnover £100,000 – £499,999 - £129

Organisational turnover £50,000 – £99,999 -  £109

Organisational turnover less than £50,000 or individuals unattached to an organisation - £89

Find out more here.