❇️ Who gives money to other organisations like you?
Understanding who has given grants or donations to other organisations like you in your country can provide some good ideas on who you could approach. To do this you could check the websites, social media pages and annual reports of organisations similar to yours and find information on their existing donors. If you then go to a listed donor’s annual report or website you might then also be able to find out what they funded and how much they donated. This is very helpful information in identifying which funders might be most likely to fund your work. It is also worth contacting other similar organisations directly to ask them about their funders and how they secured funding. You can also look at other Member Organisations of WAGGGS and contact them to get hints and tips about any donors they have that are interesting to you. Check below the PDF document with the partner/prospect profile template.
❇️ What can you find out about your potential donors (also called prospects)?
Once you have a long list of potential funders, research each one thoroughly to work out if they are a realistic prospect. To ensure your final list of prospects is genuinely full of good opportunities and worth the further work in relationship-building and applying, ensure you check:
1️⃣ Any funding eligibility criteria – this can include items such as:
⭕ The income level of charities they donate to (e.g. some will set an upper or lower limit on eligibility criteria).
⭕ The themes they will donate to (e.g. it is only worth the time in applying if your work/project does align with their themes in some ways. You can get creative here
though. Of course the obvious themes would be around Women and Girls, or Youth, but it depends what the project is. It might be that you are setting up an environmental project or a health awareness project, allowing you to go for funding with those themes. Just remember that most funders get far more applications and requests than they can support, so only the most suited projects will receive funding.
⭕They may only fund projects where some funds have already been raised, as a match funder, or they may prefer to fund a full project. This will determine whether they are the right funder right now. If they are a match funder you would still apply, you would just wait until you had other funding in place first.
2️⃣ Their application process.
You MUST follow any stated process, so you need to check at this point:
⭕ Their deadlines and if given decision dates – this might be too late for the project you are seeking funding for.
⭕Their application process and the information they need as part of the application. How long will the application take – is this going to give you enough time to get the funding for the project? Can you provide everything they ask for e.g. recently published annual accounts? If there are things you simply can’t provide, this will likely make you ineligible.
3️⃣ The average value of their grants. This will help to guide your own ask. Usually on a first ask/application you would not apply at the upper end of their giving range unless you are encouraged by the funder to do so. You can use the ‘prospect profile template’ included in this pack to help you do this.
👇🏻 Download the resource here!
