Are You Making These Funding Application Mistakes?
Over the last year or so I’ve reviewed nearly 200 Arts Council England applications for the Musicians Union, across all funds, helping artists bids for funding be as successful as possible. However the more I do it, the more I notice common mistakes that are holding applicants back and stopping strong ideas from being funded. There are loads of great pieces of advice for writing your fund but I wanted to collect together the really common mistakes I see again and again.
Although these mostly apply to Arts Council (and especially to DYCP), most of these points can be taken into any project funding to help strengthen your bid.
Lacking detail when it comes to your activities. Most applications will ask you to give a quick overview of your activity eg. Recording and releasing, followed by a more detailed description. So many applications fail to give more detail or focus on activities that are not actually requiring the majority of the funding. You need to think about where you are spending your money, who on, for how long and what will they bring to the project. Name people and give their credits where possible - this context will really show that you have a plan rather than just an idea in place. Get granular, use bullet points, really show why your project is going to be successful. Just think of how many people are also applying for ‘recording and releasing’, make yours stand out.
Not showing off enough. Most people are a little shy about their achievements, don’t count them up or don’t like to make it clear just how many people they reached, what big names were closely linked to it etc. A funding application is the time to go big on these facts. Mention the venues, the amount of people, really make it clear why it is a big achievement. I always say if you feel like you’re showing off, you’re probably only just saying enough.
Not taking references seriously enough. I recently looked over an application that used a non-specific LinkedIn endorsement as a reference for their application, other applicants will just revert to letting their manager say a little something. I can tell you now not only is it important to look at what your referee is saying (always look for them to emphasise the quality of your work) but also think about who you can get to say it. Think about the funder - who might they know, what organisations might stand out to them. Then ask. In good time. The worst they can say is no.
Listing achievements but giving no impacts. This is a funny one because I think people just completely forget that without context, without showing development, achievements lack anchor points and just can kind of…sit there. Rather than saying we were played on 6 music 20 times. Say how many people that reached, say what became of it, did someone book you for a festival because of it? Did it boost your social media following? Try and show how you grow and develop through the highlights of your career.
Difference between an activity, an output, an aim and an impact. It can be really hard to work out the difference between an outcome and an aim. I totally appreciate that, but if you try and use a planning triangle: Activities at the bottom (recording and releasing), Mission/Outcomes in the middle (high quality music, targeted and marketed to your identified audience), with Aim/impact/vision at the top (Build a fanbase, critical acclaim), then you can get from A to B. Basically most people can identify what they will do and what they’ll achieve but struggle to identify the middle step of how what they’ll do, will help them achieve their goal.
Big costs in budget that aren’t mentioned anywhere else. This is a basic one but I so often get to a budget and see something significant that hasn’t been talked about previously. Sometimes applications can make it hard to find space to do this before the budget; but if there’s a major outgoing in your budget you need to ensure you include it in your detailed project description, so it’s easy to understand why it’s necessary.
Not being specific about what you’ll do in the future. Actually even worse, a number of people don’t link their future activity to the work they are doing in the application. It’s totally fine if you’re going to go in another direction later but they want to know how this activity will have an impact on your future work. It’s much clearer to give a few precise examples than a huge overview of what you might do. Rather than ‘releasing more’ or something big like that, look at what opportunities, skills or developments you’d like to work on in the future that are specifically related to the project period.
Overall applications can be difficult, and they’re competitive. You won’t necessarily be successful on your first go - maybe not even your second, but keep going, talk to others around you and get people to read over your applications to ensure they’re the best they can be. The experience can be helpful on so many levels, it can help build better planning into your work, make it easier to articulate what you want to do and really solidify your wider aims as a professional or artist.
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We offer some select one-on-one support for applications, you can also use the MU applications checking service or book us for funding workshops. Email us for a discovery call at jess@soundsandstrategy.com