Module 1: Search for Grants

Before you begin searching for a grant, it’s important to answer a few questions to properly categorise your work. This considers your legal status, project size, project duration, and project budget to help you begin your search (and narrow it as well).

Example

Let’s say you are a registered small arts charity that runs art workshops for children in London. You have planned a month-long workshop for kids starting in 3 months. You are searching for a small grant of £500 to cover the cost of the workshops.

Before searching for funding, you need to outline the main points to search for.

These include:

• Who can apply? An individual? An organisation? Both? Many public or private funding institutions will specify who is eligible to apply and it’s essential you check before starting an application.

In this example, you are a registered charity and therefore need funding for an organisation.

• What is the funding for? Another important point to consider is what the funding is for. Is it for a project specifically? Or to develop a practice? Is it core costs for an organisation? Or seed money to get your social enterprise on its feet?

In this example, we are looking for a project grant to cover the costs of a workshop.

Lingo

Core Costs: Core costs are the day-to-day running costs of an organisation including salaries, overheads, office rent, equipment, software, travel etc.

Seed Money: Seed money or seed capital is money granted to an organisation / start up to initiate a new business, idea, or product.

• How much are you applying for? Different funding opportunities offers different amounts of support. For example, micro-grants offering a small amount of funding whereas other opportunities offer more sizeable support. Before you start your search, make sure you know how much you need.

In this example, you are searching for a grant of up to £500.

• Can you secure the funding on time? When is your project starting and how long does it last? Many funding bodies take a few months to make a decision to accept or decline your application. For example, National Lottery Project Grants in the UK currently take 8 weeks to get back to you for applications under £30K and 12 weeks for £30K+.

In this example, the project begins in 3 months so you must make sure the funding body will give you a reply before the project start date.

• Who is allowed to benefit from the funding? Many funding opportunities focus on supporting specific communities or professional disciplines. Is the funding for you? Or is it support a particular group of people?

In this example, the project is focused on working with children.

Tip: Before you start a funding application, make sure you check the application due date. You want to give yourself as much time as possible to complete and review your application before submitting it.

Your Turn

Q1. Who is the grant for? Individual, organisation, or both?

Q2. What is the grant for?
Options included in Working Document

Q3. How much are you applying for?

Q4. Project start date:

Q5. Project end date:

Q6. Are you / your work part of any particular communities?

(answer on your downloaded Working Document)

Once you are done, start searching for funding opportunities.

Here are 3 great ways to begin your search:

1. Search for Grants - great news! With your COMMUN subscription, you can search through hundreds of Arts & Community funding opportunities from across the UK on our website. Get started by going by clicking on the Search for Grants button in the Grants section of our website and then use search and filter functions to find a funding opportunity that fits your project.

2. Arts Admin Newsletter - Arts Admin sends a weekly newsletter full of opportunities for artists and those working in the creative sector. Subscribe to their newsletter to begin receiving opportunities.

3. Grantfinder - a funding database covering local, national, and international sources of funding.

Module 3: Contacting a Funding Body Before You Apply

One thing grant seekers often overlook is getting in touch directly with funding bodies before starting an application. Establishing a relationship with a grant body and sharing your project beforehand can save you time and also allows you to ask crucial questions. Above all, speaking with someone can help clarify a funder’s aims and outlooks.

To get started, read How to Dig Deeper When Talking to a Funder

Tip: Before contacting a funding body, do your research and read as much as you can about them and their application process. Then, write down a list of questions you would like to ask in relation to your project.

Example

Below is COMMUN’s list of go-to questions we use when reaching out to a funding body for the first time. Have a read through our questions and consider what you would like to ask a funding body. Not all of our questions may be relevant to you (we use them selectively), but it’s a good way to start thinking about how to shape your application in a way that speaks to the funding body.

Tip: We start by sending an introductory email about our work in general and request a phone or video call to discuss our project. If they cannot schedule a call, we send them questions we need answers to that are not available on their website.

1. Can we apply to (insert funding opportunity) for (insert type) funding to (insert a short statement about your project)?

This tells us if our project is a good fit.

2. What is the average budget for past successful applications?

This tells us if our proposed budget is a good fit.

3. What is the average project duration for past successful applications?

This tells us if our proposed project duration is a good fit.

4. How many applications do you receive on average for this funding opportunity?

This tells us how competitive the application process is.

5. What is the success rate of applications for this funding opportunity?

This tells us how competitive the application process is.

6. How much of your overall annual spend is given to this funding opportunity?

This tells us how competitive the application process is.

7. Do you have a preferred amount of funding we should have secured before submitting our application? (eg. should we have secured 50% of our total budget before applying?)

This tells us what we need to do before applying to increase our chances for a successful application (confirming interest from other funding bodies reduces the risk of a project for a new funding body).

8. Do you look at our previous year’s income to make a decision about the sum you can award us? (eg. if we did £100K in income last year then the maximum sum you can award us is 25% of that?)

This tells us if our proposed budget is a good fit.

9. What steps do you take to review an application on receipt?

This tells us how lengthy the review process will be.

10.   What are your reporting requirements?

This tells us how much data we need to collect while implementing our project. 

Lingo

Reporting: On completion of a funding opportunity, the recipient will usually be required to submit a summary report outlining the goals and outcome of the original funding request. This report normally details how the funds were used and the impact it had.

Your Turn

Q8. Write down 5 questions to ask the funding body you are interested in applying to after reviewing a funding opportunity on their website.

(answer on your downloaded Working Document)