Grant Resources
Grant application tips, turning ideas into ‘projects’, applying for government grants, budget development, relationship building, grant terminology & more.
Basic Grant Writing Tips - Getting Started
Have you ever started a grant application but had to stop midway to wonder what some of the terms mean?
Like food, air and water, these are the absolute basics you need to get right with grants. As simple as they are, you would be surprised how many people fail to follow these Five Top Grant Tips. Get these right, and you will already be ahead of many, many others.
If there was one thing I could pass on to the world to help you find more grants, it would be this: Ask yourself, what is the WHY of your concept?
Invest time BEFORE you start writing a grant application to make sure you meet ALL of the eligibility criteria.
A phone call also gives you the chance to ask for clarification on any questions you're not sure how to answer.
Grant applications are so much quicker to write if you have your information readily available. Here's a list of the basics to keep in your grants file.
Did you know that taking a look at your website is one of the first checks a funding body may do on your organisation?
After you have done all the hard work of writing your grant proposal, describing you goals, program activities and evaluation plan, don’t rush your budget preparation. Carefully consider what the project costs will be, and include enough detail in your proposal that the funding body can feel confident that they know what the grant will be used for.
We sometimes have members ask why we include closed grants in our Grants Directory. Accessing details to closed grants can be very helpful when setting up your grants schedule and forecasting what grants opportunities may lie ahead.
More Grant Terminology
Many grant providers require applicants to have either Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) or Tax Concession Charity (TCC) status. Here's what these terms mean.
Many grants listed either recommend or request a co-contribution from an applicant. ‘In-kind’ support is often accepted as an alternative, or additional, to a financial contribution.
Taking Grant Applications to the Next Level
After putting in all that effort and feeling quietly confident about a positive outcome, you find out that you are not successful in securing that grant. The disappointment can be deep and lasting but there are some positives to take away from the situation.
Big grant applications are a league of their own. Now when I say big, I’m not talking about applications which might take you a day. I’m talking about those big, nightmare applications, where each of the Selection Criteria require responses of around 1,000 words. The ones where the character count drives you crazy. The ones that are typically for Federal Government, and are for at least $500,000, but usually well into the millions. These are what I consider big grant applications.
After all your hard work, attention to detail and ensuring all your responses comply and match the requests of the grant application, you are successful in securing a government grant. Hooray! Time to celebrate. What’s next?
Use this checklist to ensure you don't have to panic at the last minute when submitting your next grant application!
Here are 9 simple tips to understand the grant program, its processes and how you can give yourselves the best chance of becoming a winner!
No grant is an easy win these days. Grant processes are often complex and time consuming. Many applicants get tripped up by simple mistakes and by trying to hurry the all-important submission step. Here are 5 points to consider when deciding whether or not to apply for a grant.
Government, whether it’s local, State or Federal – is a conservative and risk-averse beast. When it comes to government grants, you can be assured of a lengthy, complex, considered and at times pedantic process.
Before you plunge in and apply for a government grant, consider why you are applying, is the grant suitable for you and what are the potential benefits / returns to your business?
It’s not uncommon for organisations to reduce personnel and overhead costs by outsourcing day-to-day back office functions such as accounting or IT – however it’s less common to outsource specialised functions such as research, development of fundraising strategy or components of fundraising such as grant writing.
Foundation staff are a valuable resource to grant seekers due to the fact that they are interacting with an array of grant seeking organisations and other funders every day.
The investment of time in setting up a system to support the grant application process, often referred to as grant readiness, allows organisations to identify funding opportunities that align with their overall strategy and most importantly avoid the practice of trying to fit a square plug into a round hole.
Knowing where and how to start can be overwhelming when you are new to the grant-seeking path. Fear not, dear reader! Let’s shift down some gears and look at where to kick off from, followed by simple steps to get that grant application confidently submitted.