Nobody needs to tell me what a struggle it is to write a grant. I’ve been doing it for 25 years. When we had to TYPE our applications and make six photocopies before popping it in a letterbox. If ever there were motivation for keeping a grant application succinct it was having to use a typewriter to pull it together.

Of course these days, most grant applications are submitted digitally. Which is also great motivation for keeping your answers to the point. With digital applications you’ll literally get cut off mid-sentence if you go over the word count.

But I digress. If you’re a new grant writer, you might be looking for resources and support to help you along your journey. We’ve created a bunch of useful tips and guides here, but there’s a bunch of other resources that will help you find your feet in this space and many of them are free or very low-cost.

Here’s our faves.

1. Winning Grants Funding in Australia: The Step by Step Guide

This highly practical guide steps you through the grant seeking process helping you prepare and research a successful funding application. Much of the content is similar to what we deliver in our grant writing courses, but people learn in different ways and this guide is useful as a permanent reference for the budding grant writer. It covers how to find a suitable grant for your group, how to find out about the grant maker, what resources it will take, how to find friends to support your application and how to write a proposal. The guide is published by Our Community and retails for $36.

2. Arts Acumen: Funding application writing toolkit

Find tips on applying for funding, a criteria checklist, notes on budgeting and insights and advice from arts industry peers and assessors in this very practical guide from Arts Queensland. While it was written with the arts sector in mind, the strategies apply to anyone seeking government funding and it’s available for free online. 

3. Grant application writing examples

Our friends at Strategic Grants have compiled an excellent example for new grant writers. This example shows both poor and well written answers to a grant application question so that you can understand the difference. It helps here, if you try to imagine being in the funders’ shoes while reading these responses.

4. Philanthropy Australia guide to effective grant seeking

With a focus on philanthropic funds, which won’t apply to you unless you have DGR status, this guide covers how to research for funders, what kind of information you need to provide, what to include in your submission (and what to leave out) and what to do whether you’re successful or unsuccessful in your grant application.

Do you have a go-to grant writing reference? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.