• Allow plenty of time to develop your application
• Read the funder’s criteria carefully
• Gather all the information you will need before you start writing
• Get someone to read your first draft and ask them questions — did it make sense? Did it persuade them that you should get the funding? What was missing?
• Put yourself in the funders’ position — would you be able to make a funding decision based on your application?
• Avoid jargon and acronyms
• State the obvious: don’t assume that the funder will know what you mean, spell it out in plain English
• Keep it clear and concise.
• If the funder states that no additional information is to be included with the application other than what they’ve asked for, DON’T be tempted to include information that you think might interest them
• If you’ve included another committee member as co-signatory on the application form, make sure they’re up-to-date with the project.
• Don’t start your project unless you’ve received confirmation that you’ve been awarded a grant – most funders will not give retrospective grants i.e. they will not pay for something that’s already happened.

If you need more help in pulling together the information you need to make a good application there are a number of sources listed in Key resources and that may help you.