24 Mar How to Write a Successful Grant Application

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our ways of working irrevocably. Overnight, you might need to acquire new skills, and access temporary financial relief and support. Here are our tips for writing more successful grant applications.

Written by Daniela Cavalletti

5 min read

Adaptation, agility and speed are crucial to survival in a crisis.

There are many emergency resources for businesses out there to help you navigate the new terrain the recent global pandemic has shaped.

But you got to be fast, and you need to be thorough.

Do you know whether you are you eligible? And, if so, how do you make your case successfully – and in time? Even if you are one of the lucky businesses with services or products suddenly in high demand (like communications, IT, or web design), you might be equally stumped when suddenly you need to quickly reply to an urgent tender, RFQ, or EOI.

The 101 of Successful Grant Applications

There are a few things to remember to strengthen your hand and write a successful grant application (or tender, they share many aspects). Here’s a look at the most crucial aspects, but which are easy to overlook.

#1 – Know Your Audience

First up, and the most essential thing, it’s all about the audience. Remember who is issuing the grant you are applying for. Is it a federal, state or local council grant? Or perhaps an association you are affiliated with is lending financial support?

Understand what the issuer of the grant is looking to achieve by supplying you and others with their funds. Are they trying to stimulate your country’s entire economy? Or are local businesses and retaining local employees the focus?

Depending on the goals of the issuer, you will need to ensure you stress the related aspects of your business and your contribution to the outcome they are looking to achieve. Like with a resume for a job application, you need to adapt the details of your unique case, offering and abilities to make them stand out and shine.

Both, with a grant or a tender submission, your reader is wearing two hats: first is the organisation you’re corresponding with and second, it is the individual.

Think about the person at the other end reading your proposal. How can you guide them towards the conclusion that yes, you make a strong case for financial support, or that hiring you is the answer?

They will be time-poor, and your submission might be one of a hundred, or a thousand, or even more.

If you can you make your reader’s life easier by being clear, to the point, and speaking their language, half the battle is won. Because you captured their attention by standing out.

#2 – Find the Sweet Spots

Always carefully check on the evaluation criteria – and also their relative importance to each other. The grant or tender details will (either obviously, or very subtly) tell you whether there is a weighting to the criteria, i.e. that certain things may be more important than others.

Check – and emphasise that you can fulfil – the criteria that will be more highly valued than others when it comes to decision making.  

Find the sweet spots, and direct the reader to the results you can achieve.

• List each requirement and address how you meet it clearly.
• One by one, point by point.
• Be methodical here.

#3 – Answer the Question

The third key point seems so self-evident, but trust me, it’s one that gets missed most often: make sure you answer the actual question. Read each question or requirement carefully to fully understand why it has been asked – then carefully plan how you can satisfy that reason with your answer.

With both a grant and a tender, the crucial criteria you’re given should be explicit. So, keep this front and centre in your replies. Make sure your response covers off exactly how you match or can achieve what’s asked.

To build additional rapport, ensure the reader aka decision-maker will also feel that you understood and answered each question and addressed each criterium properly. You most effectively do that by repeating their own words back to them. Yes, use the same phrases and terms they’ve used. Tick them off, one by one, to ensure each one’s been addressed.

If you can clearly show that you understand the requirements, your answers will be compelling. 

You may find some grants and tenders to be rather convoluted in language and lengthy overall. Be sure to read the full document once at least, to spot themes, main concerns and intentions.

Then go over each question with a fine-tooth comb, before answering them succinctly and directly.

#4 – Follow the Format

Grants and tenders have a strict structure that ensures that all related submissions can be fairly assessed and compared. And with relative ease for the reader.

Not following that format to the t might mean that your submission will get dismissed on a mere technicality.

So it’s vitally important for the success of your application that you follow any formatting instructions very carefully. These are some of the common presentation must-haves you might come across:

• If you are applying online, text boxes might have notes regarding strict word limitations. Be guided here by the instructions – not every questionnaire is set up to automatically limit your word-count.
• If there are no such restrictions, use clear numbering, spacing and subheadings to name each specific item and then address it clearly in your response.
• Check whether your response requires a separate cover letter or a summary statement.
• Do you need to provide historic and predicted revenue figures in a certain format, prepared and verified by your accountant, or will a simple list of numbers suffice?

Make sure you don’t miss anything extra requested by reading all the fine print a few times over – and check everything once more before hitting ‘send’ on your submission.

#5 – Simple, Consistent + Clear

This is the bit that can be quite hard: don’t be too elaborate. It’s natural that you want to make a strong case, and your instinct might be to add extra information or impress with technical know-how. But it pays to keep your language as simple as possible. Remember, you want this to be read, understood and easily generate a favourable response.

If you’re a technical whizz, it can be easy to lose sight of the ordinary reader. Think about the reader’s level of assumed knowledge. Use everyday language for non-specialist readers, keeping sentences short and punchy. Avoid unnecessary jargon at all cost; use it as sparingly and only as needed.

Stick to a simple structure for your arguments. Ensure that your response has no surprises. Lay out your appeal early on in strong opening sentences and then drive it home along clear lines.

It helps to use the active voice because it clearly indicates who does what, conveys action and results: “The grant will allow us to employ three more people by June 2021” is a lot stronger than “Three more people can be employed by June 2020 with this grant”.

Last, but not least, on language: keep the terrain familiar at all times. Do make sure your language is consistent by using the same terms throughout to guide your reader.

#6 – Meet the Deadline

Rather importantly, make sure you know the deadline to make a submission. Then start working backwards with your planning.

Too many grant and tender submissions never get sent simply because time ran out.

It’s easy to underestimate the time it might take to get everything lined up. But if you plan well from the start, you will make the process of writing a submission – and a convincing and successful one – a lot clearer, faster and easier for yourself:

1. Break down the questions you need to answer right at the beginning
2. Allocate tasks to your team, your accountant, etc. as needed.
3. Create a timeline and deadlines for the delivery and collation of the information.
4. Write the full application.
5. Ensure all criteria, formatting rules and extras have been taken care of.
6. Proofread everything a couple of times; for both consistency of terms used, as well as grammatical errors.
7. Submit

#7 – Time Poor? Call in Some Help

In crisis times when governments issue a range of grants, you may be eligible to access smaller grants to facilitate larger projects and access larger funding.

For example, I’ve accessed the Business Continuity Grant that supports businesses with “up to $750 toward the cost of engaging the services of a suitably qualified person to advice on business continuity planning”. In my case, I chose to allocate that to my accountant, while others may hire a business coach or work with a grant writer.

Ensure you check all the options available to you.

Grants Are Investments, Not Handouts

A final word on grants.

Recently, I’ve had a number of conversations with fellow business owners who have been reluctant to access available grants. They feel it is an admission of failure, of weakness. To them, it’s accepting an unearned handout. While receiving an act of charity is nothing to be ashamed of, grants are not that.

Grants are an investment.

An investment into the security and the future of a society, our economy, and our people. To me they are an astute and responsible investment into the business I worked so a hard to build.

Grants not only support a business – but its teams, the customers it serves … and as a result, accumulatively, our entire community.