Writing Charity Funding Bids - How to Write A Bid for Your Charity

Writing a charity funding bid that will make your grant application successful may appear to be a black art, but it isn't.  Here's how to write a funding bid for your charity - the 4 simple steps to successful funding applications, plus free online training on bid writing for charities.

Free Charity Funding Bid Writing Service

To use our free charity funding bid writing, register then login and the in-system AI bunny will write your fundraising case for support for you.   But we do a lot more than that.  Funding Finder finds grant funding, Help Finder company donations, Data Finder, facts an data for your funding bids and research and there are also 100+downloadable funding lists, and the 8 online health checks, including fundraising.

A one-stop shop for everything you need

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Funding Bid Step 1 – Remember Who This Application is About and For

Our funding bid isn't about what we want, but what our beneficiaries need and the grant funder wants. We are meeting a real need, not just chasing funding. We’ve looked at the funder’s website/annual reports to see if they’ve funded projects like ours before.

• Top Tip: If possible, engage the funder to help maximise your chance of success. There’s no magic fundraising ratio, but very roughly 10% of bids to ‘cold’ funders are successful, whereas it’s more like 30% for engaged funders, although it seems to have become much more challenging recently.

Funding Bid Step 2 – We Meet the Application Requirements

Our bid meets the funding criteria - they are a funder of our type of charity and the work we want to apply for.

• Top Tip: Comply with any instructions on how your funding bid is to be submitted, such as online/mail applications, deadline dates, word count/length, attachments.

Funding Bid Step 3 – Our Application Makes the Case Well

Our bid includes the information, facts and/or figures, to make the case for funding, explains why we are best placed to deliver the project, and conveys the urgency of the need and the difference the project will make.

• Top Tip: Ensure that all costs have been identified and accurately estimated. Some funders will accept all overheads, but not many, for most it’s 10% to 15% and some won’t accept any.

Funding Bid Step 4 – Our Application Will Engage the Funder

Our charity funding bid is succinct (brief and clear) and will be understood by those reading it.   Our bid is also emotionally engaging – people give to people and want to know that their funding will make a difference to an issue that matters to them.

• Top Tip - keep it jargon free and any acronyms should either be in common use or have been explained.

Succinct - briefly and clearly expressed.

Jargon - professional terminology or slang expression that not everyone will understand.

Acronym - an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word - BBC.

Writing Funding Bids - Case for Support

A case for support helps to make sure that when writing funding bids you always make the best possible case and it saves you time too - here's how to do it.

Successful Charity Funding Bids - Free Training

• The 4 Steps to Funding Bid Success – the key areas you need to understand and apply to be successful in writing charity funding bids, including how to ensure the best possible case, write funding bids more quickly and how to use the free AI bid writer to write bids for you.
• How to Find New Charity Funders – the fundraising outlook, diversifying income, how to choose the best grants directories and lots of ways to find new funding, including Charity Excellence tips & tricks and those used by the professionals.

How To Make Your Charity Funding Bids Even More Successful

A registered charity ourselves, the CEF works for any non profit, not just charities.

• Funding Finder - with categories for Core Cost Funding and Small Charities & Community Groups.
• Help Finder – find anything for free, including companies that make financial donations and raffle prizes.
• Data Finder – for fundraising bids & research, impact reporting, planning and campaigning.

Plus, 100+downloadable funder lists, 40+ policies, 8 online health checks and the huge resource base.

Quick, simple and very effective.

Find Funding, Free Help & Resources - Everything Is Free.

Register Now!

To access help and resources on anything to do with running a charity, including funding, click the AI Bunny icon in the bottom right of your screen and ask it short questions, including key words.  Register, then login and the in-system AI Bunny is able to write funding bids and download 40+ charity policy templates as well.

My thanks to Lisa Gagliani whose input improved my original draft.