Funder fit diagnostic
Should We Apply
Two questions sit in front of every bid. Should we apply to this funder, and can we write it well. This answers the first. Skipping it produces well evidenced applications to funders who were never going to fund the work.
10 quick questions, about 5 minutes. The scored diagnostic underneath is optional and only needed above £10,000. Your answers save as you go, so you can leave it and come back.
Stage 1
Eligibility gates
Not scored. Ineligible applications are filtered before a human reads them, so a no or an unsure on any of these four is a full stop, whatever the rest of the picture looks like.
Stage 2
Fit questions
Five or more yes out of six to continue. The last one catches more poor applications than any other question on this page.
Stage 3
Full diagnostic
optional at this amount, but it sharpens the answerFour scored domains out of 100. Pick the band that describes the position today. The bands are written so that the honest answer is usually the second one down.
Stage 4
Red flags
Tick anything that is true. Any two together send you back to the outcomes work, whatever the score says.
Decision
Not enough answered yet
Work through the gates and the fit questions above. The decision updates as you answer, and it names the specific answer driving it.
On its way
We will send this over shortly, along with an honest read on what it would actually take to close the gaps. If we think you do not need us, we will say that too.
Second opinion
Describe the work you want funded in two or three sentences, in your own words rather than the funder's. You will get a read on where the fit actually breaks and what to do about it.
Facilitator notes
Where this sits. Run it before any evidence gathering. It answers a different question from the application work, and the two scoring systems are deliberately not combined. This scores fit out of 100. Evidence readiness is scored separately out of 18. An organisation can score well here and badly there, and that combination is common: the right funder, approached too early.
The intervention that matters most. When someone answers unsure on a gate, they almost always mean no. Say so. Unsure on eligibility means nobody has opened the funder's guidance and read it against the governing document, and that is a 20 minute job rather than a judgement call.
Watch for the retrofit. The sixth fit question, whether the project existed before the fund did, is where the room goes quiet. If the project only exists because the money exists, an assessor can usually tell, because the activities underneath the outcomes do not produce them. Do not let a group talk themselves past this one.
The override is not negotiable. Nine or below on purpose fit, or nine or below on outcomes fit, caps the decision at do not apply whatever the total. Groups push back because the total looks respectable. Hold it. A weak purpose cannot be compensated for with strong evidence.
Handling a not yet result. Three steps, in this order.
- Name the gap in one sentence, and decide whether it is worth closing for the organisation regardless of this funder.
- Give it an owner and a date. A gap without both is a wish.
- Then talk to the funder. Ask whether they have funded work like yours, what strong applications in your area tend to show, and whether your amount is realistic. Most funders answer all three.
Where behaviour beats words. Published criteria say one thing and the last 50 grants say another. Where they differ, the grant list is the better guide. Send people to 360Giving, the funder's own grants pages and their annual report before they trust the criteria page.