5 tips to help your funding application stand out from the crowd!

Think about it. Funders have hundreds if not thousands of grant applications to wade through. So it's important that your application not only meets their criteria, but that it stands out from the crowd - in a good way.

Here are a few simple tips to get you started.

1) Draw attention to your key points through creative use of formatting

Don't be afraid to use colour, text boxes, bullet points, bold or italic text to highlight your most important points.

2) Include the voice of your service users

This one is *so* important. Have a good bank of quotes and case studies you can use. It's often far more powerful than anything you could write yourself!

3) Have a bank of strong imagery

Don't be afraid to use photos or infographics in your funding applications - they say a picture paints a thousand words and the right images can really bring your work to life, and save you vital word count!

4) Keep it concise and to the point

Answer the questions, include all the key information but don't use more words than you have to. I'll be posting with more advice on this topic soon so keep an eye on the blog if this is something you are struggling with!

5)Personalise. Show the funder that you have REALLY done your research.

This one seems really obvious, but do your research, find out as much as you can about the funder's priorities and interests and reference them in your application. Take a deep dive into those accounts and see what you can find...