“Ethnic” way to win grants

A village in Staffordshire wanted to upgrade their village hall.

They had seen several other local village halls get funding from a national organisation. They applied for funding and were rejected. They applied again and were rejected.

They then called up the national organisation and asked why they had been unsuccessful since other similar applications had been accepted.

They were told that there was not an “Ethnic” aspect to their application and that therefore they were not granted funding.

The application team then took some time to reflect and see what type of “ethnic” aspect could be used in the third application. They found that a large number of families in the area had Eastern European family names. He did some research and found that most had come to the area to be involved in mining.

They then put in the third application for the “Eastern European Miners village hall” and had the application approved.

They found an aspect to their application that also met the funding groups specific goals.

It is always important to understand the current goals and criteria of the granting organisation and to be able to meet these.