Planning

Planning and pre-writing preparation is essential for a good grant application.

Once you have done your home-work and have it organised in an easily accessible format, you will be able to use this material for various proposals and applications.

Know your Club 

Know your club and why it exists.

Develop an organisational statement (one concise page). This should include:

• The vision and mission/purpose if these have been developed
• How and why your club got started
• What the club is doing today
• Where it is going in the future.

 

Also include brief descriptions of the club’s

• Structure
• Administrative procedures
• Financial processes
• Members
• Products or services.

 

Background Submission Information

Using the criteria set out in the grant conditions, consider background information you might use to support your application. This may include:

• Articles or speeches related to the issue
• Surveys
• Case studies.

 

This information can be put in a proposal development file, and will provide you with facts to support your application when you write it.

 

Identify Your Needs

The need for funding may be, for an example, to establish something, build or re-furbish a facility or to extend a service your club provides. Substantiate your need for funding. This could include:

• Reports
• Survey results
• Examples of gaps in services not current provided by your club that are required.

 

Other people and organisations may be able to assist in the identification for a need for funding. These may include:

• Local government
• Local businesses
• Community groups
• Club members.

 

Advocates

Advocates are people who support your club, and who are willing to express their support in either a written or oral form. Brief letters or support may assist your submission.

• Develop a contact list of possible advocates
• Write letters to relevant contacts
• Share expertise to develop contacts
• Meet with representatives of a variety of funding sources
• State and advisory committee as a ‘sounding board’ for ideas and to gain community support for the project.

 

Know the Market Place

There are two different market places for funding: government (including local, State and Federal) and private sources.

Government

When applying for government funding be aware of the following:

• Meeting the published guidelines
• Using the standard application formats
• Raising matched funding (if this is a requirement)
• Keeping to the deadline for the closing date for submissions – one minute late may be too late
• There may be a requirement to submit frequent and specific project reports
• Submitting a review process (if required).

 

The contact person can clarify the application process.

 

Private Market place

Private grants are often much smaller than those made by governments.

The language used in instructions and on application forms often can be difficult to understand. If you are not sure of the meaning of something, ring the funding body and ask for clarification.

 

Developing your application

Needs Statement

Demonstrate why the project is important to the community.

• Document the problem as it is now
• Indicate how the situation could be improved
• Use the information from your Proposal Development File
• The statement should be motivating to convince the potential source of funds that the project is important
• Include your credentials and state why yours is the most appropriate club

 

Aims and Objectives

Aims

General statements of want you want to accomplish. Evaluate the aim – does it reflect what you want to change, and to the right degree?

Objectives

The standard format for an objective is: “To (action verb and statement reflecting your measurement indicator) by (performance standard) by (deadline) at a cost of no more than (cost frame).”

 

“To increase the first aid skills of our club coaches and team managers through attending a sports medicine sports first aid course by August at a cost of $1,400.”

 

Outcomes

An outcome is the result of your objective – its success. In the above example this could be:

• Club Coaches and Team Managers First Aid Skills Improved by August

 

Identify how you will determine the outcomes of your project:

• Determine measurement indicators
• Determine performance success standards – at what point can your consider the project to have been successful?
• Determine the timeframe – the amount of time you need in order to reach your performance standards
• Determine the cost – the amount needed to implement the objectives through the activities you have selected.

 

Develop a Project Timeline/Schedule

Timelines are useful planning tools. There are a number of specially designed computer packages to do this, but essentially it is listing all the outcomes you aim to achieve. Each outcome can include:

• Start and finish dates for each activity required to achieve the outcome
• The number of hours needed to complete the activity(ies)
• Key volunteers/personnel
• Personnel costs
• Consultants and contract services
• Non-personnel resources
• Subtotal costs for the activity(ies)
• Milestones or performance indicators
• Dates on which the funding body will receive milestone reports

 

Project Timeline Example

Project Activity	Start Date	Finish Date	Responsibility	Cost	Milestone
Need to improve First Aid Skills identified at Club Planning Meeting	1 Sept	1 Sept	Club President	$50 for lunch	Club Planning Meeting Held
Seek information about relevant Sports First Aid Courses	Oct	Oct	Club Secretary	-	Info by Nov Club Meeting
Apply for Volunteer Grant Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs	March	March	Club Sponsorship/Grants Officer	-	Application submitted 16 April
Notification received Volunteer Grant successful	July	July	Club Sponsorship/Grants Officer		July Notification received
Attend Sports Medicine	August	August	Club Coaches & Team Managers		Course attended

 

Develop a Project Outline

A project outline is another design tool, which help plan a project in detail.

• Describe project activities in detail – how do they fulfil the objectives?
• Describe the sequence, flow and interrelationships of activities
• Describe the planned personnel/volunteers/staffing – assign responsibilities to individuals
• Present a reasonable scope of activities that can be accomplished within the timeframe and the resources of your club with the funding.
• Outline the cost/benefit ration of your project
• Give specific time frames
• Discuss risk and ways to minimise these
• Describe your unique methods and project design.

 

Budget

A budget should include costs of:

• Volunteers
• Staff
• Insurance
• Equipment including office equipment
• Office
• Travel
• Telephone
• Printing
• Postage
• Insurance

 

Budget Example

Description	Quoted Amount
Sports Medicine First Aid Course	$140 per person x 10 people = $1,400
First Aid Kits	$100 each x 5 kits = $500
Total project cost	$1,900

 

Note: Ensure the budget adds correctly

 

Source of Funding Example

Expenditure	In Kind Contribution	Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs	Local Council	Anticipated Grant	Total
First Aid Course	-	$1,400		$1,400	$1,400
First Aid Kits		$500		$500	$500
Total		$1,900		$1,900	$1,900

 

Outcomes

What is it that people will do differently after the grant that they don’t do now?

How will that difference be measured?

• Include a plan to assess the project
• Describe who will evaluate the project
• Say what records will be kept
• Indicate how success will be measured

 

Future Funding

Most funding sources want the project to live past the funding date. State how you might get future funding through service fees, membership fees, other grants, fundraising campaigns, an endowment program, direct mail.

 

Putting it all together

Language and Usage

Your style should be simple and concise.

• Emphasise end results, not tasks or methods
• Emphasise the ultimate benefit of your program’s work
• Use the language of a reader.

 

Writing Style

Your style must reflect what the funding sources wants and what the reviewers will be looking for:

• Be concise and clear
• Use short sentences and short paragraphs
• Avoid overdone formatting and mixing too many fonts sizes or styles
• Use bullets
• Use bold headings
• Use charts and graphs where appropriate.

 

Your submission should include:

• A covering letter
• A title page
• A summary
• A needs assessment/statement
• Response to all selection criteria
• Articles, attachments and statistics
• Budget.

 

Covering Letter

The covering letter should be short (half a page), motivating, say something different, and stress need or unique application for funding.

 

Title Page

The title is very important. It should:

• Be creative but not misleading
• Be designed to catch the reader’s attention without misleading him/her
• Describe the project
• Express the end result of the project not the methods
• Describe the benefits to the clients
• Be short and easy to remember.

 

Look to newspaper headlines for ideas on how to do this.

 

Summary

The summary is the most important part of the proposal, because it is the part of the proposal that is most frequently read. If it is not succinct and motivating, you have lost the reader.

Written after the proposal is completed but placed before the main body of text. The summary describes:

• The objectives
• The approach
• The evaluation.

 

It should not be a list, repeating the various steps, but a concise outline of the proposal.

 

Attachments

Most decisions on grant applications are made by a committee, or a Minister, who want to read only the major details of your concept. However, this committee will probably receive recommendations from a secretariat or public servants who will read the detail of your project and advise the decision makers. Appendices and back-up information are written for those who advise the decision makers.

The following are possible attachments:

• Studies/research and tables or graphs that support your case
• Minutes of club committee meetings
• Club Annual report
• Auditor’s report/statement
• Letters of recommendation and endorsement
• Pictures, photos
• Copies of your organisation’s brochures or publications
• List of other organisations you are approaching for funding

 

Allocation of Grant and Follow-up

Often you may need to sign some form of contract or agreement with the funding body before receiving the grant.

Once you have received the funds, acknowledge the grant by letter or thank you email.

If you are not successful in an application, try to find out why by asking for feedback from the funding body.

 

Let people know – Celebrate

Spread the good word about the work you’ve done and the funding you’ve received. Options include local media stories, radio interview, newsletter, producing training materials, or all of the above.

Keep copies of written material in your development file to support future grant applications.

Information adapted from Department of Local Government and Regional Development Government of Western Australia Guide to Submission Writing