Grant Application Advice

To help facilitate more creative activities and increase your chances of being allocated a grant, Fare has put together some basic guidelines everyone should take into consideration before applying for a grant.

These guidelines should help you to write a successful grant application. Read carefully before you apply for a Fare grant.

Read

Read the call and criteria closely. Understand what can be funded and what cannot be funded. Only proposals meeting the specified criteria will be funded. Pay attention to dates and deadlines. Ask if you are unsure.

Take your time

Think, plan and prepare. Time invested at this stage will be reaped as you begin to work out and communicate your project to us.

Think about the specific issues that you want to address. It is better to pick one or two areas to focus on than aiming at tackling all forms of discrimination at once. The message will be stronger, and the result clearer, if you focus on specific topics. Ask yourself: What are our aims? What is the issue that we want to address? Who do we want to reach? How can we reach these people? How can we involve them in the process of organising the activity? What activities do we want to organise to reach our goals? How do we communicate our event/project to the public? How can we reach the widest possible audience?

Be clear and concrete

We cannot read your mind. Be clear about what you plan to do, how your project will run, which issues it will address and who will be your partners. If you can’t tell us, we assume you don’t know and you are unlikely to be successful. Sometimes it helps to write less, but say more. Be specific; don’t give us information that is not relevant to the application, like a history of your organisation.

Formulate concrete goals. Try to quantify ways to gauge your progress and success.

For example, instead of “We hope to make football more inclusive,” you might say, “We hope to make football in the x region more inclusive for ethnic minority women by organising three free training sessions [with ‘y’ attendees] in [towns] on [dates].”

Be seen

The success of an event or project does not only depend on its content but also on its visibility and successful external communication. When planning your event or activity think about a media and publicity strategy and add it to the application and implement it accordingly.

Be realistic

Only include in your application what you can certainly achieve, also consider the sustainability of the project and how you can achieve it to have a long-term effect. You need to have the expertise and/or staff needed to deliver the project to the participants expected.

Think about what you are able to commit. Consider the amount of time that you need to put in to organise your project or event. Don’t propose an international event if you don’t have yet established relationships with partners abroad. Don’t say you’ll involve 30 volunteers if you have only recruited 5. Fare wants to see that you think long term. Please don’t make promises you can’t keep.

You can’t do it alone

Form partnerships with groups and other funders. Other organisations and partners will have valuable expertise that they can contribute in-kind and help make your activity a success. Think of areas of generating publicity, printing, transportation, refreshments etc.

Fare welcomes if you have other funders to achieve mounting a bigger event. Please indicate in your application where the additional funds will come from.

Know the numbers

Think carefully about your budget. Be clear about the costs and in your application give enough detail to make clear what the grant will be spent on.

What are the real costs? It is not in our interests to receive projects that look to be under-budgeted nor are we looking for something that is inflated extravagantly. Fare is unable to cover administration and staffing costs.

Be creative

A vital part of securing a grant is being able to answer the question, “Why is my idea different? What makes it standing out from the other applications?” Try to ensure that your proposal isn’t identical to activities or projects already in place. Be creative in your thought process, and confident that your idea is one-of-a-kind.

For #FootballPeople weeks activities, anti-racist tournaments and the production of banners for presentation in stadiums are welcome but won’t shine out. Fare encourages innovative and new types of activities.