One of the best things about my job is being a member of funding panels. Having been a bid writer in my previous working life, it’s interesting to be on the other side making decisions on bids and it has certainly improved my own practice.
I was recently on the funding panel, and I would like to share some thoughts and tips with you.
Tip 1: Read the guidance. Treat writing a bid like an English comprehension exercise. Read the guidance and answer the question using the guidance. Easy to say, but often hard to do.
Tip 2: The need question is often the hardest to answer. Look at local data about the neighbourhood, health, education attainment, and local strategies. At Salford CVS, we have a Funding Focus session called Know Your Stats. This two-hour session will discuss the different types of data sources and strategies you can use in your bid, adding valuable information to your bid. You can find information about our Know Your State session and other funding courses here: Salford CVS Events & Training | Salford CVS
Tip 3: When you answer the Project Delivery question, it’s vital to bring your project alive in the minds of the panel. Tell them what you are going to do, how you are going to do it, what resources you need, and the partnerships in place. It’s important to be clear and direct about what you are going to do. Vague or woolly language does not help. Remember, the panel member will be reading 30 to 40 bids, and if the bid is clear, that makes our job so much easier to do.
Tip 4: How you format your answers is important. Again, a panel member has to read lots of bids so make it easy for them.
Start with a bold heading for your subject
- Then use bullet points
- This will help break down your answer
- Give each idea or item on a separate line
- As this helps the panel member navigate your bid much more quickly
If you use a paragraph essay style, the panel member might miss your key points. Sometimes, it is not possible to format your answer like this, as it depends on the funder.
Tip 5: Make sure the costings in your budget are properly broken down.
For example:
Bad
Venue Hire - £500
Good
Venue Hire (10 sessions at £50 per session at x venue) = £500
Detail is key, and the panel members know you have properly costed the bid.
Tip 6: Make sure your budget matches your project description. There are times when I’ve had to look at the budget to understand the project description and vice versa.
Tip 7: Make sure your budget adds up. Very simple, but it’s surprising how many bids don’t add up.
Tip 8: Be careful when using AI. AI can structure your ideas into a logical and understandable order. The problem is that using AI can cause you to lose your individual voice and tone, making you sound bland and like everyone else.
Part of AI’s problem is that it uses American spelling and terminology, which is a real giveaway that you have used AI. Also, it sounds odd to the panel members.
If you use AI, use it in your initial draft for structural purposes. But AI should NEVER be the final product. Often, I use AI to structure my ideas, but I then edit back in my tone and voice. I have ongoing arguments with Grammarly about my personal tone.
I remember being told years ago that when writing bids, you need to leave some blood on the page. What I find is that AI is like a crime scene cleaner, and by using it too much, you can lose the impact of your bid.
Tip 9: Get someone else to proofread your bid who’s not connected with your project. They can provide objective feedback and tell you what they don’t understand. If you can’t, then if you have certain versions of Word, you can read your documents out to you. Listening to your bid makes it easy to spot your mistakes. A screen reader is your friend.
Tip 10: Apply for the amount you need for the project and not the full amount you can apply for. A panel can only allocate a fixed amount of funding. So, if everyone goes for the max of £5k with a funding pot of £50k, only 10 projects can be funded. Believe me, as a panel member, we would love to fund most of the projects. By applying for what you need, the funding and the love will go further. Also, when the panel has to make tough decisions, they are more likely to approve the projects with a lower budget to get the money all spent.
Final thoughts
There is so much else I could share about my experience, but I want to leave you with a final thought. One bid really stood out for me because it included direct quotes from its service users in its answers. This really showed the impact and benefit of the project and the charity's work. This was the blood on the page I was looking for and it made it very easy for me to say yes to the bid. Finally, if you need help writing a bid, please contact us at Salford CVS. The Development Team is here to help. Please get in touch as soon as possible, as we are very limited in what we can do three hours before the deadline!