1. Tower Hamlets Council for Voluntary Services
Developing bids: Top Tips

2. Warm up session
Hands up how many in the room love planning project activities and timelines?
How many love doing research, reading long reports and strategies?
How many love doing surveys and face to face consultation?
How many love writing funding application forms?
How many love preparing financial budgets?
Is there anyone in the room that loves doing ALL of the above?
What do we learn from that …?

3. Developing a bid Step by Step
Resist all temptation to start writing!!! Until you have gone through this Step by Step:
Planning stage:
Agree your overall aims, outcomes and how you will measure them.
Research your evidence of need
Plan the number and type of activities that will take place
Work out how much these activities will cost you (including staffing, venue, training, volunteer costs etc.)
2. Identify your potential funders and read their guidance
3. Then, and only then, start writing your bid

4. Planning your project: The planning triangle
AIM: the overall point of the project OUTCOMES: the difference(s) you intend to make OUTPUTS: The activities you will undertake

5. Outcomes and Indicators
Participatory shout out:
Can anyone tell us what ‘outcome’ means?
How do you think you would phrase outcomes? Can anyone offer some examples (they don’t have to be about your own project, but they can be if you like)
What does ‘an indicator’ mean? Can anyone offer some examples ..
Can anyone let us know what SMART stands for when talking about outcomes?

6. Outcomes and Indicators
To re-cap –
- an outcome is the change that happens for people during your project
an indicator is a way of knowing if you are achieving your outcome
Some examples:
The outcome is ‘older people will be less socially isolated on their housing estate’. The indicators might be whether they have made new friends; whether they spend more time outside their flats than they used to.
The outcome is ‘patients will have more knowledge to manage their diabetes’. The indicators might be the number who report their blood sugar tests have improved; or the number who report they have successfully changed their dietary habits.

7. SMART outcomes re-cap Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic
Time Based

8. Let’s have a go at drafting outcomes and indicators
Think about the work that you do and the change that you want your project to make for your target group
Draft one, two or three outcomes
Then draft what the indicators will be
Lets share some of them
Bear in mind we have lots of funders next door – you could show them your proposed outcomes and indicators and ask them if they are worded well enough to attract their funding!

9. Now we know our outcomes, let’s have a go at using the Planning triangle
Use the planning triangle and fill in your overall aim at the top
Add your outcomes in the middle
Add your project activities and outputs at the bottom

10. Once you have your aims, outcomes and outputs planned it’s time for some research!
Evidence of Need
Funders will not invest in a project if they don’t think it is needed.
It will be up to you to show them why it is needed.
It is recommended to present different three ‘tiers’ of evidence of need to help express to the funders that there is a need for your project.

11. Tier 1. Need identified at service level
Describe the community you serve
Describe their needs and issues
Describe how these issues affect them in their daily lives e.g. lead to social isolation/ receiving stigma and being marginalised/ affect their chances of getting a job/ affect their ability to achieve at school
- Use statistics on how many people locally have these issues
- Use focus group, user- consultation or co-production evidence if you have it

12. Tier 2. Need identified at local and regional level
Local and London-wide strategies, reports and statistics will support your evidence of need. You might find useful evidence from:
- JSNA (can anyone help on what JSNA is)
Your local Council’s community plan; health & wellbeing strategy; economic strategy; cultural strategy; young people’s strategy etc.,
Mayor of London (Sadiq Khan) and London Councils strategies that are appropriate to the kind of work you are doing
The government indices of deprivation
Your local ward profiles

13. Tier 3: Need identified at national level
Need identified at a national level - research and copy and paste well-chosen sentences that are appropriate for your organisation/project from e.g.:
national charities reports;
government reports;
It’s a good idea to find relevant quotes from research and save these in a folder to use for different bids
Can anyone suggest other sources for evidence of need in any of the three tiers?

14. Before you start filling in a bid: Read the Guidance
Before you start filling in a bid: Read the Guidance! Once, twice, thrice!
Plan in some time to read funders guidance!
Make sure you are eligible to apply and that your proposed project suits their priorities;
Some funders offer information work-shops or an opportunity to talk to them about your project so take advantage of these offers.
Others say ‘please do not telephone us or us’ so don’t!
Keep your copy of the guidance handy – you will need to refer to it again and again

15. Writing your project description
This should tell your funder about ‘the who, the what, the where and when’
Who your project is for
What activities they will do
Where the project will take place
When it will take place and how long it will continue for.

16. Be clear about what activities will be delivered
When you describe the outputs in your Project Description let your funder know what their money will support Please can a volunteer read out the examples and say which they think a funder would prefer, and why? Example 1 We will hold afternoon training to help people in job search at the community centre and some employers will come to some sessions to meet potential candidates Example 2 We will hold 8 x 2 hour afternoon sessions in job search, presentation skills and speaking in public held at the community centre. 4 different employers will visit at the final two sessions to meet potential candidates

17. Preparing your budget
If you have a clear project plan in place it will be easier to work out what your project will cost
Read the funders guidance on what they WILL pay for and what they will NOT pay for, for example some funders might fund a contribution to existing staff or a contribution to your rent. Other funders might not.
Check that all the sums add up!!! I recommend always preparing a separate excel document so you can check the totals add up

18. Sing about your achievements, skills and track record
In most bids the funder will ask about your capabilities to run your project
You might include
How long your organisation has done this kind of work
Some quotes from feedback from your service users
Any awards you have won for your work (Hands up anyone who has won an award)
The skills that your team and board have
The policies that you use to ensure good practice in your work
Any Quality Marks that your organisation holds

19. Other Top Tips The dreaded word counts!
Always stick to these, use bullet points if you can to fit in all you need to fit in. (One funder said an applicant had run lots of words together to avoid the word count… the funder was not impressed)
Question scores
Check the guidance and form in case the funder has told you how much each question scores. You might want to spend more time preparing your answers to the higher scoring questions.

20. Other Top Tips
If it is an online application try and submit it well before the deadline in case traffic is high!
Make sure you have included any supporting documents which the funder wants to see – again check your guidance!
Some applications require a Trustee to sign the bid – make sure you plan this in and let your trustee see the bid in advance.
Check if your local CVS offers draft checking and plan time for this to happen
Don’t miss your deadline! ….. And finally ……..

21. Does anyone here have any other Top Tips to share?
Things you did well …
Things you wish you had done when you developed previous bids ….
Any other tips for success….
Thanks for attending today …