We know this is usually the case in business and the grant world is no different. If you want to get 100s of thousands or millions of dollars in funding for your project, then you are going to have to spend some money to do it.
Why? Because no-one is going to invest large amounts of money into a project that is not well planned and shovel ready (meaning the project is ready to start as soon as the funds become available). And planning a project well, getting it ready to start, costs money.
You may need architectural design drawings, approvals, a feasibility study, cost benefit analysis, a business case etc. to be able to prove that your project is viable, feasible and ready to go. Investors need to know that if they put their money into your project, you will be able to successfully complete the project and achieve the outcomes you intend. This means that for larger, more complex projects, a feasibility study may be required to assess the likelihood of success and a business case that provides ALL the project detail, as well as the pitch for funding is very likely to be necessary.
In addition, it is very difficult to prove that a project is likely to succeed if there are unknown factors, such as the exact work being completed, what approvals are needed and whether they will be provided and whether there is a market for your product/service. For this reason your project planning needs to have explored all these things and have answers to these questions, for example:
- here are the detailed design drawings which set out exactly what we will do.
- here is a list of all the approvals required to allow the project to proceed. And we have received them all, or (at the very least) we have in-principle agreement that there should be no issues and approval will be in place by this specified date.
- here is a certificate of title/lease over the land or letter of agreement from the landowner for us to complete the project on their land.
- here are letters of commitment for all the project partners proving that they are willing to be involved and will commit the necessary funding, materials etc that are required to make the project viable or will purchase/use the outputs (product or service) of the project.
As you can see, getting all this in place is going to cost money, time and effort. But if you have a project that you want someone to invest large amounts of money in to, then you need to invest in the project first.
If you need help preparing your business case for funding, contact Whitney Consulting.
