Good quality materials are central to a well-managed fund. They will give those who wish to secure funding the best chance of developing a strong proposal and of providing the information needed to make a decision on their request. The materials should also make clear what types of funding proposals will not be supported. Clear and comprehensive materials can make the difference between a successful funding proposal and a waste of applicants’ time, as well as that of the decision-making group.
They should be in plain English and provide a complete picture of the types of applicants and projects the Fund will and won’t support, as well as the criteria the decision making group will use in making award decisions.
Fund materials may comprise of:
It is good practice to provide as few documents as possible for applicants to navigate through, and to ensure these are clear and easy to understand; applying to their community benefit fund should not be a detective mission for local groups!
Remember too that not everyone in the community may be literate (print or IT), or some may simply prefer to work with hard copy materials. It is a good idea to therefore provide these at key locations such as the library, village or town hall, and offices of any community organisations. Make sure people know where these are available from.
If at all possible, it is good practice to provide an enquiry service for prospective applicants. This will depend of course on the resources available. The purpose of a pre-application enquiry service is to support applicants to submit funding proposals that are as strong a fit as possible with the Fund criteria, are complete, clear and will deliver maximum impact locally. However, those providing the service need to be clear that it is not a project development service – unless, of course, the same organisation is providing that type of support too.
