RELATIONSHIPS - all associations and charitable foundations talk to each other about YOU, who is good to work with and who is not. So how do you form a good relationship? This is through staying in touch.
The lazy and easily ignored way is by email, so be personal, send hand-written notes or actually phone people, target a specific person.
Remember criteria are there to reduce the administrative cost of the fund, therefore research
and follow the criteria.
Remember this is a grant strategy – you will probably be reapplying to the same fund so
engage with them at every opportunity.
E-mails are a strange combination of formal and informal, but they are not personal and
personal works…
Invite them along to your events or special days. Always make sure the invitation is for two
people so they can bring someone. Make sure you look after that second person just as well
as the main person as they will be travelling back with them and talking!
Follow up any contacts WITHIN 10 DAYS if two weekends have passed you have been
forgotten.
Engage with people: things happen!
If you get that grant DON’T STOP THERE it is an on-going process, keep talking to people.
There are two types of trust:
- Endowment trusts (ET) which have secure long term assets, e.g. Nobel Peace prize
- Through-put trusts (TPT) which give away what they raise, e.g. Children in Need
TPT are more risk averse than ET because they can’t afford bad publicity.
ET are longer term and not so sensitive to the media etc and are governed by Trust deeds.
There are: Wide trust deeds and Narrow Trust deeds.
So research what they do; always call even if they say not to – you can find out a lot in a 30
second call.
If you get a grant write them a thank you letter – it’s surprising how many people don’t.
Make sure you complete all the stipulations of the grant such as evaluations or reports and
have returned them to the funder on time.
All this will make you look more professional and as if you are sensible safe hands to administer their money.
When writing a new grant application, follow this system:
1. Put the form in a drawer
2. Put up sheets of paper on the wall
3. Make a business case for your project
4. Then, and only then, fill in the form using the criteria you have developed in your
Business Plan
Avoid jargon – use summaries.
Remember, most assessors are not full time or trained assessors, so make sure you answer
questions simply and VERY clearly. For example, in response to: ‘How many people will
directly benefit from your project?’ say that ‘x number of people will directly benefit from our
project through x contact sessions, y performances etc.’ Many assessors won’t even be
familiar with your particular area of work so be clear.
If you are applying to a company’s donations or corporate responsibility fund you will
normally find this is administered by the human resources department or by the chief executive’s personal assistant. You need to talk to them differently from grant giving funds.
This process is far more paper orientated, as they need to ensure you are credible, so be
prepared to cross the t’s and dot the i’s and send them everything you have.
Employee-led funding committees – these are funds donated and administered by the
employees which are often matched by the company. In general don’t bother with these as
they are very led by social trends and tend to favour emotionally appealing causes only.
Very fickle and hard to read – as they are committee led and personally biased.
Should you use a professional fund-raiser? In general, you’re the one who has the
passion about your project to make a bid stand out; professionals can edit or improve what
you write but not add that spark.
What’s the impact of the recession? It had been expected that competition for funds and
trusts would have become much fiercer but that isn't actually visible yet; this may just be
starting now. Get bids in now as 2010 will be worse. There are definitely hard times ahead
for local authorities, especially those that haven’t already committed themselves to
supporting culture and the arts. Get to know your area, your district councillor, your county
councillor. Each will have at least £20k per year which can be a useful lever.
Good fundraisers flourish in hard times. Make your own luck, exploit your commercial
contacts and don’t under-sell yourself.