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Read it all (twice), underline dates and deadlines, check your eligibility, what are the objectives of the grant, who is the contact, what are the funding conditions, check application requirements. As yourself what is the assessment process, how do they treat contributions, do they recognize ‘in kind’, what’s the full project delivery timeline, are there any requirements regarding local employment, sustainability, social procurement etc. Check terms and conditions, physically how do we submit the application (online etc.)
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What skills do we need? who is in the team? are there any gaps? do we need to outsource the grant application? allocate tasks against times, who is doing what, set regular meeting schedule, what information do we have, what are we missing? What is the governance structure required?
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Understanding the political agenda
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If it's government or NGO funding you need to understand the objectives - is it focussed on economic growth, education, creating specific jobs, conservation, accessibility, new technology, new markets, upskilling, reskilling, exports?
Read the announcements and policies – don’t be frightened to repeat their words back to them (tweaked). Demonstrating understanding of the bigger agenda and how your project can/will deliver their objectives is a strong message.
Is there a commitment to undertaking and demonstrating community engagement?
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You have to know your numbers inside/outside, costs and overheads, inputs of labour and materials. Understand the phasing in financial years. What’s the contribution ration. How/is ‘in kind’ costed as a contribution to the matching? What co-funding options are out? Understand the full costs of project management, audit and reporting requirements. What other parts of the business may be impacted or benefit from the project i.e., website refresh, communication materials, meeting costs for PCG, engagement activities.
What’s the outsourcing costs? Market driven? Build a costing model that you can populate will help create confidence you have all covered.
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Secure third-party contribution commitments
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Organise discussions with possible funding partners, understand their financial situation and budget phasing, is it cash you need or in-kind or a contribution, are they to then be part of the PCG? What other support can they offer? Secure letter of commitment. This about how private sector funds may be included. Governments also like to see industry putting their money into the project.
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Identify referees and activate advocacy
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Identify and contact appropriate referees, they should speak to the bona fides and capabilities of your organisation as well as be case or project specific, consider providing key messages to your referees to assist. They should advocate for the project as well as your organisation.
There may be a mandatory requirement in the application for ‘approval’ letters from local government, land managers, regional tourism boards etc.
If government grant contact appropriate local member – possibly seek letter of support if aligned.
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Understand reporting, governance and acquittals
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If you are successful, the contract will be built around elements of the Application you have submitted. This can include budget phasing, reporting milestones, governance structures, risk matrix, outcomes and funding partners. Be aware of how this affects your capacities and timings.
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Social procurement frameworks and customer service POD
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Grants are most likely to be contestable funds which means that you are in a pool with competitors for the money. Understand how you can create a POD. Be across terms and requirements now in the modern grant environment including social procurement frameworks (job targets, opportunities for the unemployed, aboriginal, regional and/or disabled workers, sustainable targets on recycling, carbon emissions, waste, requirement for local content during and post grant delivery.
Build in customer service benefits such as research, training, skills transfer. Demonstrate how the investment will make an impact and create a legacy for the industry/community.
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Most Grant Applications now, particularly from government are, in online template form. Are there any word counts? Can you attach documents? Build your application offline including answers to questions, budget and risk tables, to ensure you have a saved copy and use that to get any approvals required. Don’t risk the online application process failing and you losing your information and having to start again.
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Be mindful that internal approvals can slow you down and highjack your timelines. Those approvals from any partners can also impact your timing. Make sure you are keeping those with the responsibility to sign off on the application aware of the deadlines and how you are progressing with the application. It’s a good approach to bring them into the discussions at a couple of points so that the application contents are not a surprise and so that you can create internal support.
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Have you answered all sections? Do you have your attachments all together and correctly formatted? Reread for spelling and grammar. Double check your figures, timelines, phasing and milestones all align. If you have time have someone not connected with the project to read – as that is how an assessor will read it.
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Don’t leave it to the last minute, try to submit at least a few hours early. If everyone is trying to submit at the same time (in the last hour) the system may slow down or become unstable and you don’t want to risk that happening. Look out for a verification that your applicant has been received. Ensure you check your junk mail or if the online portal has a tracking feature then check that the application has moved along in the process – take note of any application number.
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