Preparing a Funding Submission

It is important to realise that the demand for government grants nearly always outstrips the supply of money. It can be an intensely competitive situation. Applicants should therefore take great care in preparing their applications and ensuring that those who will assess the application have all the necessary details to make a judgment.

Applicants for funding should not rely on answering questions in the application form as the only means by which information about the funding need is supplied to the the funding provider. Instead, in addition to completing the application form, applicants should prepare and attach a proposal that provides information about the funding need according to the following categories:

Project Description (or Project Overview)

A general description of the project that includes who is managing the project, what will actually happen, why there is a need for the project, expected benefits, the amount of money needed and where it will come from (including this submission).

Target Groups

PRIMARY: The section of the population who will directly benefit from the project

SECONDARY: Other persons or organisations that will gain benefit from the project because:

Project objectives

The changes that the project will make, for example:

Geographical location and reach

State where the project will be based and the extent of the community that will receive benefit e.g. 15 Km radius and/or 5,000 young persons between the ages of 10 and 15.

Collaboration

It is very useful to show how your organisations is working with or pooling resources with other organisations to provide a benefit to a greater number of people.

Sustainability

For most funding programs it is necessary to demonstrate that the project requires once-off or "seed" funding. If a project needs funding for more than one year to ensure its continuance, it will have less chance of success.

Evaluation of Project

Where public funding has been used the funding agency usually requires reports that enable the determination of how successful the program has been so that judgments of future funding submissions can be made more easily. A good funding submission will therefore contain information as to how the program will be evaluated for impact and outcome.

Project Timelines

The important dates of the project including all the steps in the organisation of the project. A Gantt chart may be useful here as per example:

Gantt chart for a National Championships

Project Budget

Budgets need to be watertight, full of detail and demonstrate full competence on the part of the applicant organisation.

Budget Justification

Detailed explanations of the budget are necessary. This may include breakdowns of every component.

Other Project Funding Sources

Many funding projects require funding from more than once source to be implemented. Any other sources of funds must be shown.

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