Getting Business Grants

By Tara Whitney | Whitney Consulting

Getting grants for your business can make an amazing difference. There is a lot of money available but not many businesses know how to prepare a winning grant application.

To help, I have put together a list of top tips to follow when applying for grant funds.

Grant Guidelines should be read before, during and after writing your application – you need to know them inside out. Before you even begin writing – read the eligibility criteria carefully -

The grant guidelines tell you the eligibility criteria (if you aren’t eligible there is no point wasting your time applying) and importantly, they tell you why the funding body is giving away money. The grant program’s objectives. How well your project will meet their objectives is key to a successful funding application. Keep a copy of the grant objectives handy when writing the grant and constantly refer back to them to demonstrate how your project meets them. 

Remember – it is about what the funding body wants to pay for – what they want, not what you want. You must answer the question they have asked and not just tell them what you want them to know. The answers are scored based on how well they answer the question – you can’t secure a grant if you score poorly because you failed to answer the question. This is the main reason applications fail!

If you have a question while you are preparing your application – ask! Assessors would prefer to answer a question than to have to review a grant that has completely missed the point. Establishing a rapport with the funding body will only increase your chances of success.

You need to assume the person assessing the application knows absolutely nothing about your project – tell them the story. 

Set the scene – explain what the problem/situation is currently and tell the story about why the project is needed, where it has come from, how it will be delivered and what the impact will be. Then back that up with proof in the form of statistics, quotes or attachments.

Lastly, you need to be in it to win it! If you’d like to be notified of what grants are open or coming up, sign up to our grants newsletter https://bit.ly/grantwisewithwhitney