What organisations need to consider to become “grant-ready”: Partnerships & Publicity

Continuing our funding advice blog series, London Sport Consultancy funding expert Aaron Dunkley shares further advice on becoming grant ready. 

In this blog, Aaron discusses partnerships and publicity, looking at the value of collaboration with other organisations and use of appropriate communication channels to help engage different demographics experiencing unique needs, barriers and habits.

Partnerships & Publicity

A ‘build it and they will come’ mindset towards engaging people in your work will not convince grant-makers. 

Simply putting on an activity session does not mean you will reach your target audience, especially if targeting specific, underrepresented demographics as many grant-makers expect. 

Collaboration with other organisations and use of appropriate communication channels will help to engage different demographics experiencing unique needs, barriers and habits.

Things to consider:

• Do you have an online presence? Does your online presence strike the right tone for your organisation or ask?

It is not compulsory and might not be appropriate for your target groups but, in an increasingly digital world, evermore people use the internet to get their information.

An active website and social media channels are ways to boost engagement and raise awareness of your work. They also offer additional outlets to acknowledge the grant-makers that support you.

• Do you partner with other organisations to deliver projects?

Working in partnerships demonstrates you have awareness of others in your sector or local area and understand your own limitations. Partnerships are appealing to grant-makers because they can support more organisations rather than needing to choose between multiple organisations competing with one another. 

At the very least, other organisations can help you engage your target beneficiaries through signposting or referrals of their own service users, with whom they are likely to have trusting relationships.

• Is there any overlap in your work and the work of statutory organisations?

Grant-makers must make difficult decisions about where to distribute their grants.

If government-funded services already exist to address the same issues as your project in the same community, city or county, it might be harder to secure funding than similar work which has no funding or is not a statutory responsibility.

In the final blog of the grant-readiness section of our funding advice series , Aaron will discuss community involvement & impact measurement.

If you would like to find out more about London Sport Consultancy funding support, including support around topics covered in this series, please get in touch with our funding expert at aaron.dunkley@londonsport.org.