A fundamental guide to bullet proofing your grant process

Grants are something that are not for the faint of heart. They take grit, commitment, self-confidence, honesty and passion. I was not expecting it to become something that I really enjoy doing, like I love the learning, the process, the people and the projects and that’s why many writers do it. Although we are few and far between, we share commonalities and have similar experiences. There are definitely dos and don’ts along the way – for how we engage with you and how you engage with us.

For me, it’s not just about “getting wins”, it’s about seeing a solution evolve or someone's abilities expand and in turn, people witnessing the exceptional talents blossom over time (thank you funders). I love seeing public outcomes after a long incubation period, I love seeing an organisation really connect to the people it represents. I love uncovering allies from unexpected corners and witness them feel a sense of pride for their contribution in often thankless jobs. I love seeing their passion find and connect to others and seeing informal consortiums emerge through shared values; to nurture a new initiative, a particular event or celebration, a person or a group.

They end up becoming a dream team of fierce collaborators and often, these amazing workers enable systems of change within often oppressive workplaces or can navigate highly politicised environments and the competing KPI’s within these systems to bring some hope and goodwill - flowing out, benefiting many, dismantling barriers along the way. To me this is one of the true aims of securing funding - the ability to pilot, respond, shape and strengthen communities working within, either individually or organisationally.

Show me the money! Grab a cuppa, let’s go…

Here are some random points that have stuck out to me recently in traversing the grants process in no preferred order!

1. Allow plenty of time to digest what the grant is about and your ideas. You need to edit, re-write a couple of times and do a final proof to get language right and cross check the "ask" so the evidence you have gathered is attached in your support material, and it all connects together to demonstrate the ‘what, when, where, why and how’.

2. No rush jobs - don't ask a grant writer a week out to do the bulk of your work and expect it to be perfect. It's not reasonable. I have tried to help / do this work in quick sprints, but not producing quality work affects my reputation in terms of my success rate and can ruin the relationship with you just as much as it lowers your chances of success. This creates resentment on both sides. A grant writer / client relationship requires a lot of trust, i.e., sharing logins, bank and contact details and learning about you and your project and/or organisation (the good, the bad and the ugly).

3. As a grant writer, I am helping you to connect to your project. I am helping you shape it, I'm helping you understand your obligations to the project and to the funder, I am often delving into your organisational core and questioning or often re-writing higher level documents. There are no short cuts. You must connect deeply, and it must be authentic. I can tell which applications are crafted like this and I can tell which grants are only words on paper looking for the money… “Just fund me because I am so great, I will call you to tell you I am great.” rather than understanding the impact you hope to achieve. If you're chasing money, grants are not the easy option. Don’t be that pushy person. There is no higher purpose to greed.

4. The last-minute sprint grants are ones that you have re-written a few times and have the evidence in place. You don't need to reinvent the wheel. Totally doable if it's just letters of support to be updated (make sure you call to ask the person / org if that's ok, even if they are happy for you to do the edit - make sure you send them the "final" document). Some approvals may need to go up the ranks but if the relationship exists (shows viability and capacity to deliver) then it is a much easier one to sort out. These are the types of relationships you want to foster which makes document gathering and decision making a breeze. The idea of "the sum of all parts" rings true and has a much higher chance of funding and successful project delivery. Love these individual parts openly.

5. Steer clear of orgs that have too much bureaucracy or the staff / boss alignment isn't there. They usually include a ton of friction and simple steps are fraught with complications (messy convo alert). The internal risk is on overdrive, or that org is just simply crap at collaborating (Aaaagh silos! Run a mile). It will slow everything down to the point of inertia – sometimes orgs do this as an avoidance tactic or the point of contact is stretched, compromised, has no authority (bless them) or has an agenda you will have no way to know. Trust me, its mind-bending hard work and speaking from someone who has been burnt in formalising partnerships, I'm not going to sell my soul or give your manager my IP or grant application. I will say no to this demand because too often the CEO or someone else will want to use the work to expand a business service as an example. Not good, not ok. Most of the time, the IP is the client’s and that needs to be respected – they can do with it as they please as is the case for working with individuals.

6. Read the grant, eligibility, look at previously funded projects and get your head around what you can spend your budget on. Just remember you really need to pull this apart in detail, don't guess. It shows, especially in wages and time commitments.

Get quotes. Check if the grant has budget categories that are weighted. Don’t leave the budget to the last minute to do, there are some really complicated ones out there you need to balance in-kind income / expenses and cash income / expenses. Some fund the gap once you have balanced them, some include the grant as income. If you have access to a finance person, get them to check this for you. Ring the funder, they may be kind enough to have a budget template you haven’t seen in the grant supplementary material, may have a webinar you can watch or on rare occasions might be able to send you a de-identified budget template.

Also ask them how specific you need to be in naming categories. Is “production expenses” enough or do you have to name all the various items that make the total cost of this line item? If an overall cost if the go, it means if your quotes change, you might not be so caught out with the acquittal, or if you know there’s going to be a major change in the under / overspend, call them straight away. You can’t spend money on things the grant has said no to, however, you may be able to use it for a similar cost depending if the grant is weighted or the grant allows you to spend it on the project no matter the category. This is another reason why you need to consider a range of grants that can cover your costs because very few grants will cover 100% of the total budget (usually around 30%) so most funders expect this and ask you to demonstrate this in your application.

7. Don't say you are going to do a million things in the grant. Far out, stage it out! Funders love it when you have done a million things because a lot of the time, the meagre amount of $ they give you is a cost savings for them (even preparing the grant you have probably contributed $5,000 across in-kind, consumables and fees). In real world terms, the $10,000 they give you would most likely be around the $100,000 mark for the personal contribution of you and your team's time and resources (in-kind and cash). People often undervalue their assets / expenses gifted to the project. The funders win big time when this happens, and you run the risk of burning good will and depleting your bank account.

8. The number of times no-one writes a task list of stuff to do including delegation and their due date is high. Again, it mirrors the rush job if someone hasn't planned their time out and tracked it. All the little bits and pieces grants require takes more time than you expect. A week might not be enough for a budget as an example or getting a support letter back. Get yourself a grants list with their open and closing dates and go from there.

9. Evaluation - everyone falls down on this one from independents to organisations. Lots of grants ask for an evaluation plan now (QASP for one) because people are not tracking progress, consulting or requesting feedback. This is sooooo so so so important. If you are getting about 15% - 25% survey responses, that's great, especially if there are similar themes. if you see a lot of odd ball responses, they're usually wonderfully well thought out tips, valuable insights or opportunities for growth. They can show local knowledge or a specific moment, process, or innate understanding of an industry. Call them for follow up info!!!

10. If you are not getting the feedback you wanted, ring or email personally. People can be stretched. If you need it for a case study for example, you will want participant feedback. If there's budget (add this in please!), throw them a $25 gift voucher to incentivise or put on a group BBQ (if you have the time) or do something uniquely special.

11. Sometimes you might need to get videos of people speaking. A lot of people have blocks to being captured in this way so some hand holding is really important and as a care mechanism, it also helps to build, strengthen the community you are working with. It says, "I value you". Love them up! Set up a safe space - you can't expect them to lead this without some kind of reward or benefit. I tend to like capturing people in their own element. It is your responsibility to have the scaffolding in place.

12. I have not written every single grant application there is out there. There are literally hundreds of grants each year. So, I will want to do my own research / even call a funder to find out their priorities even though a lot of the evidence may be similar, there is definitely going to be lots of specifically tailored info that varies across applications and industries. Research and Development (R&D) is an essential part of a paid service.

13. I want to see your unsuccessful feedback or feedback on funded projects. I want to see how you are going to address this for next time. I want to see that you understand that this grant is a good fit. I will tell you if it isn't, but if you decide to go ahead and want me to help you, that is your choice and responsibility for the outcome.

14. Don't ask me to take a cut of the grant (commission) if you don't plan to pay me for the actual work done. All the documentation you require takes a lot of time. Many independent grant writers have been burnt because clients expect it for free. Sorry but no. If I have given you a discount that is the best I can do. Don't rack up free hours and then expect more. Return the in-kind contribution if that was the agreement first before asking for more. This might have been a one-off for me to help but that’s it.

There seems to be this myth that grant writers can be paid out of many of the grants and it's BS. Pay for services delivered because you'll be way further ahead with the new documents and work you have now which can be used again and again. Many grant writers vary across business models and price scale because of services and expertise so expect differing approaches and methodology. As another arm of the casualised workforce, lets dispel the misnomer that grant writing is a free service and raise some awareness on the tangible skill levels required for writing a well thought out, crafted application. We are invested as much as you are and we want you to have the best chance of success - on this, you might not receive funding the first time, but it doesn’t mean you won’t the next.

15. Finally, don't forget to thank the grant writer upon a success, heck even tag them or recommend them. My personal pet peeve is when I know that individual or organisation would not have been successful without my help. Be thoughtful about this especially if you have received a discount and in-kind support, just as much as the funder expects public acknowledgment, do it for your grant writer.

That’s it! Go forth and conquer. It’s a messy imperfect system but it is the one we have, and we can make a lot of cool stuff and achieve a lot of good in this space. Good luck out there friends!