New funders: the four stages in making approaches
There are many ways to ask a donor for money. Unfortunately there are as many different ways of being turned down. There are, however, some fundamental elements that need to be considered if your application has any chance of being successful.
The majority of successful applications can be broken down into four key stages:
- Stage One: Identification and evaluation
- Stage Two: Raising awareness
- Stage Three: Exploring the opportunities
- Stage Four: Making the agreement
Stage One: Identification and evaluation
There are hundreds of potential sources of funding for your organisation or project. The first key stage of any successful funding application is to correctly identify the best funders to approach.
- Does the funder support the activities you want funded?
- Can they give you the funding you need?
- Are they accepting applications?
Stage Two: Raising awareness
The funder needs to be made aware of your organisation's existence, its aims and capabilities. If they don't achieve this basic level of understanding about who you are and what you do then there is little scope for further development of the relationship.
Stage Three: Exploring the opportunities
This should be an exchange between the funder and your organisation over their respective needs. Funders have needs too! This should be a dialogue between equal partners, with active listening by both parties resulting in a mutually agreed proposal.
Stage Four: Making the agreement
This should be the easiest stage. The previous three stages should have led to applications that have been initiated and developed by both parties.
Failure at this stage is usually due to hidden flaws earlier on, and usually because there was insufficient recognition of the genuine needs of the funder.
Essentially, a refusal should be regarded as an opportunity to re-examine, evaluate and further develop your relationship with the funder.
Whatever the conclusion of these four stages, at the end of the process you need to start again at Stage One. You are either aiming to be successful next time or you need to start preparing the donor for a larger request.
