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Ten tips to help you write winning grant funding applications
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Drew Smith
Share 29 April 2021
While writing grant applications may seem like a relatively straight forward process, there is no doubt there is an art to writing grant applications that win.
Research from the Australian Research Council on National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP) trends shows that during 2020, the average success rate (number of submissions vs number awarded) was 18.5%[1]. In that time, there were almost 6,000 submissions and just over 1,000 projects funded, which highlights the competitive landscape within the grant funding community.
For your best chance of success at receiving grant funding, you need to make certain the application addresses the key objectives of the grant for which you are applying. Your submission needs to align with the purpose that sits behind the money.
To help you on your grant writing journey, we’ve outlined ten tips to help you write winning grant applications.
Understand the funding body’s objectives.
Make sure your application is professionally presented with correct spelling and grammar and appropriate layout and spacing.
Avoid acronyms where possible unless they are self-explanatory – you don’t want the reader to have go back and forth through your application to ‘crack the code’.
Check word limits and character limits in the application form and stick to them.
Copy and paste guideline questions into Word, then start completing your answers, then you can copy and paste them into your application; don’t lose information due to a webpage timing out.
Keep copies of all your applications as you may be able to reuse content for future applications; a shared drive/document repository is handy if you have several people within the organisation that are applying for grants.
Back up your responses to questions with evidence from reliable sources.
If it’s not the first round of a program, have a look at previous recipients to gauge the type and size of projects being supported.
Read the guidelines then read them again; if it’s not the first round of a program don’t assume the guidelines are the same the second time around.
Get others to read your application and provide their input – grant writing can be a team sport.
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By exploring grants available by location, industry, project and activity type, our experienced team can provide up-to-date, easy-to-understand reports that help you quickly identify suitable grants and assess your eligibility and chance of success.
Once you’ve identified suitable grants for your business, our team can work with you to write and structure your application to help maximise your chances of success, guiding you from application to fulfilment.
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