Are You Wasting Time on Funding Applications?

How much time and money do small charities waste on funding applications?

Most of us who work in charity fundraising are eternal optimists: we have to be! There is no room in fundraising for those who invariably see every glass as half empty.

But optimism has to be balanced by reality. And the reality is that not every funder will make a grant to your small charity. For example, if a funder makes it clear that they only give grants to charities in Nottinghamshire, that’s what they mean. So if your charity is in Leicestershire, it will not qualify for a grant any more than a charity in Londonderry, even though Leicestershire is adjacent to Nottinghamshire.

However, some funders will give grants to a charity working in their geographical area, even though the charity is not actually based there. A simple telephone call will normally identify each funder’s policies in this respect.

Writing in Bond in August this year, Jonathan Clarke cites a charity which completed a 60-page funding application for a £500 grant. This was presumably done on a speculative basis or on the applicant’s assessment of their chances of success. But a 60-page application probably represents some £500 of fundraising team input – and even if the application is successful, the best that can be achieved is to break even. So unless success is almost guaranteed and in addition gives a good chance of cementing a long-term relationship with the funder, the input of time and money is not worth the potential result.

Many small charities appear nervous of telephoning funders to establish their realistic chances of succeeding in a grant application. In my book The Volunteer Fundraiser’s Handbook (2014: 2nd edition to be published buy Routledge in 2027), I specifically recommend telephoning as a way of reducing research time and costs.

As the old saying goes, time is money – and in fundraising the telephone can save both!