One of the things I was really keen to do when developing this blog was to make it ‘real’. I wanted to make sure that I was putting the right information on, covering real and useful topics. So I decided to send out an email request to a varied selection of friends and work colleagues, asking them:
“What do you want to know?”
These were people from different areas of the UK and different social and professional backgrounds, but they all had one thing in common:
All had spent some, or a lot, of time, either trying to find sources of funding, writing grant applications and often a combination of both.
Here are some of the questions I received back:
- What can I get funding for?
- How do I use the correct terminology so that it meets the outcome of the bid?
- How do I begin to pull all the details I need together, how do I find the right stuff for the bid?
- Where can I find information specifically for Limited Companies/Charities/Community Interest Companies all in one place?
- How do I establish partnerships with other organisations in order to access funding?
- If the word count for a question is for example 500 words, do I need to completely use up this word count?
- How do I answer ‘How will you make this sustainable?’ When if the funding is removed it is clear that it will not carry on.
- I am struggling with telling the difference between ‘Why is your project needed?’ and ‘What difference will your project make?’ To me (who is new to funding applications) they ask the same question.
- Can the budget be altered slightly after the money has been granted – for example, if the equipment turns out to be more expensive etc?
- Why do they make it so hard?
This is just a selection of some of the questions that came flying back to me, and I will do my best to address each one in an individual blog post over the coming months.
Perhaps some of these questions are relevant to you – or perhaps there is something completely different you need to know. Remember, there is no such thing as a silly question, you can almost guarantee that somebody else is out there wondering about it.
Why not add your question to the comments below and I will try my best to point you in the right direction.