A Day in the Life of a Grantmaker...What They’re Looking For & How You Can Succeed

Being a grantmaker can be a tricky business. Every charity we meet wants to get funded for their work and is passionate that what they do makes a difference to the people they work with. It’s our job as a grantmaker to ask ourselves a whole host of questions to make sure that our limited money is used as well as it can be. Here are a few of the questions we have in our minds when we’re considering each application:

‘How does this charity measure up against other charities generally?’

It’s simple but important for us to know – has your charity got the basics right? By this we mean have you identified clear outcomes that you know you can deliver and do you have a way of knowing you that you’re making a difference? Do you have the right structures in place to keep people safe? And do you have staff and Trustees who not only conform with legal requirements and ensure the appropriate oversight and scrutiny of the finances, but who also are providing the right level of operational support and strategic direction? By giving your charity a ‘health check’ before applying for funding you can present a confident case to potential funders.

‘How do they measure up against other charities in the area?’

If your organisation is doing similar work to another nearby charity, show us how what you know about the cross-over between services, the boundaries, and how you are working together to address the needs of the local community. Can you do more to connect with and complement the work of other local services? Or if you’re providing something very different, why and how do you make this stand out?

‘How do they measure up against other charities in this field nationally?’

We want to know how you fit into the bigger picture. What informs your practice and the sort of activities and services you are delivering? How do the people you work with get involved in developing services? How effective is your work and how do you know that? Do your activities take people on a journey and alleviate some of the issues they face? Is the work you do person-centred and holistic? What evidence can you use to demonstrate this? What really sets you apart from other charities addressing similar issues?

Why we fund what we fund

When it comes to making decisions, there are some key ideas that underpin our strategy:

Supporting outstanding work

There are some charities whose work shows they’re a cut above the rest. For us that usually means they’re forward thinking, they have a good specialist understanding of how best to help their service users and they can show us the impact they make. When it comes to deciding whether to fund them, everyone involved in the decision-making process says, ‘yes definitely’.

Funding good services for longer

We believe it makes sense to fund charities who deliver very good services for three years or longer so they can focus on the great work they do. This means they can spend less time chasing funding for the future and put their energy into the services they’re delivering.

Backing organisations to develop and try out new ideas

As well as funding core costs under our Invest programme we offer Enable grants and additional support through our Enhance programme to encourage charities to make their organisations and structures better or try new things. We know that it’s harder to get funded for things like monitoring systems, developing your approach to fundraising or volunteering or getting accredited but these are vital to ensuring strong, effective services and supporting charities to not just survive but be able to thrive. It is also harder to get support for things that are yet to be proven successful, but we want to be able to support you to develop, test and pilot innovative thinking, allowing you to improve your approach to helping those in need.

So, we can’t fund everything that comes our way but at the end of each decision-making meeting, we know we have funded some really good charities which will make a real and lasting difference to the lives of people who face enormous challenges every day. Here are some examples of charities doing just that.

To find out more about the funding offered by Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales visit: www.lloydsbankfoundation.org.uk

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