The unfortunate reality is that in any competitive funding program, only a minority of applicants get funded. The vast majority of applicants get a politely written rejection letter … you know, the one that says you were “good”, but compared with others, “not good enough”.
Now I know it’s something you don’t want to hear, but it’s also something you must hear. There is no conspiracy and the government is not out to get you. The fact of the matter is, there are simply more projects than there is funding available. The ratio of applications to grants is often as high as 10 to one.
To boost your chances of success, and save you the heartache of wasting time by setting about an application the wrong way, here are some of the common grant mistakes to avoid. Knowing these will help you rise above the competition.
Mistakes, and how to avoid them
1. Not assessing eligibility before applying
The idea of getting “free money” is very appealing to most businesses, especially when these grants are specifically designed to support the activities the businesses are already undertaking. Much like buying a lottery ticket and hoping for the best, businesses sometimes adopt the attitude of “you need to be in it to win it” rather than carefully assessing the eligibility requirements.
This is a problem because, in many cases, businesses are ineligible for grants they’re applying for. Yes, their activities as a whole may be eligible but the specific project seeking grant money may not be. Applications that fail to meet eligibility requirements do not even get assessed as they’re screened and rejected in the first instance.
Before spending time preparing a grant submission, the applicant needs to be 100 per cent certain of their eligibility for the grant. While grants are typically awarded on merit (compared to other applicants) eligibility is the first hurdle which must be met regardless of other applicants.
2. Not fully assessing the amount of work involved
Businesses generally underestimate the amount of work involved in putting together a grant application. They also do not fully appreciate that doing ‘business as usual’ activities is very different from selling a project in a 30 plus page grant application (with 10 or more attachments). Or maybe they’re aware of the application but feel overwhelmed, thus procrastinating until they’re very close to the submission deadline. We commonly experience a significant increase in grant enquiries less than one month prior to the submission deadline, especially two weeks before. This is a problem because it creates unnecessary stress and uncertainty for the business.
In addition, businesses often invest time and energy into starting the application process, for example, by contacting the funding source for information and answering a few application questions, only to realise how much effort is really involved. This may cause them to abandon the application or to submit what they have prepared even though it may be incomplete, flawed and poorly presented. Simply stated, there is a world of difference between an application finished a few days early and one ‘hot off the printer’.
It’s important that businesses assess the amount of work the grant application is likely to require. This estimate should be realistic and take into account any dependencies and lag time involved in obtaining various documents from third parties, such as audited financial records.
This level of upfront analysis allows businesses to make Go / No Go decisions before investing their limited resources into the grant application. For example, if you estimate that an application requires 100 hours of effort, don’t start the process unless you’re willing to allocate that time. To even imagine that 100 hours of work could be condensed into five 20 hour days is just unrealistic. In short, estimate – and don’t start things you’re unlikely to finish.
3. Not assessing the amount of competition involved
Businesses often assume that just because they’re eligible, they are almost guaranteed funding. Unfortunately this is not the case and the reality is quite different. There are always more projects than there is funding available. This becomes an even bigger issue when the Government actively promotes the funding program, thereby ensuring that you will be competing with many other applicants, sometimes numbering in the thousands.
The worst category to apply for funding is small business start-ups, especially if the program does not require matching funding. These types of programs typically attract applicants who have plenty of ideas and spare time but no money.
To get some idea of the possibility of success and the level of competition, you should find out how many people previously applied, how many were successful and also the overall quality of the submissions. This information is freely available from the funding source (even if you do have to mention the Freedom of Information Act a number of times to any ‘reluctant’ public sector employee). This information is crucial in determining the likelihood of the application being successful … and whether or not it’s worthwhile to apply.
4. Not making grant applications a priority
Most businesses do not have a grant strategy in place, applying for grants only as an afterthought rather than seeing them as an important part of their funding strategy. This means that when a company does decide to apply, the application is rushed and delegated to someone who is available rather than to the most qualified person.
Businesses treat grants as a gamble … and that’s exactly how applications are submitted: “give it a go, but don’t spend too much time on it” as there are other ‘real’ things that need to be done.
For example, the CEO may hear about a possible grant and ask a manager to see if the company is eligible. After all, it would be silly not to take advantage of these incentives. The manager, however, is likely to have other ‘business as usual’ priorities which are clearly mapped out in their performance plan and directly related to their bonus structure. What is not clearly mapped out and related to the bonus is the grant! The manager therefore needs to make a decision between focusing on the grant (for the company) or their usual business activities (for their bonus). Not a hard choice to make really!
It’s not surprising that the manager is likely to place more priority on the ‘business as usual’ activities than on the grant application. After all, grants are hard to get and there will be no negative consequences if the application is unsuccessful. However, if they don’t carry out their usual day-to-day activities, they are likely to miss out on a bonus and may even be seen as under-performing. Without priority, grant applications tend to be left to the last minute and submitted with minimal regard, more so to ‘tick a box’ rather than to have a real shot at getting the money.
Grants applications should be done by dedicated individuals who (ideally) have some ‘skin’ in the game and in an ideal situation, grant submitters should be paid a bonus only if the grant is successful, in order to align incentives.
