13. What funders look for in an organisation
13. What funders look for in an organisation
Funders are looking for a strong organisation when they are assessing funding applications. This means having a skilled Board or Committee and good governance in place.
Board Skills
For this, it is useful to identify the skills needed to run your organisation effectively and to deliver specific projects. These can then be matched to the skills held
by the Board. Ideally, your Board or Committee will have good representation across all skill areas required.
Examples of skills to be found within a strong Board are given in the link below.
Examples of Board Member Skills
Governance
- Knowledge of roles and responsibilities of a Board
- OSCR reporting requirements
- Companies House reporting requirements
- Strategic planning
- Meeting management (plan meetings regularly, chairing, minutes)
Finance
- Financial management
- Budgeting
- Grant applications – submission and monitoring
- Community fundraising
- Administration/bookkeeping
- Liaising with accountants
People Management
- Volunteer recruitment and management
- Staff recruitment and management
- Work planning
- Training
- Working with vulnerable people
- Disclosure certification
Communication
- Liaising with Stakeholders
- Website and social media
- Marketing and promotion
- Community engagement
- Partnership development and management
Operations
- Health and safety
- Work planning
- Contract management
- Project specific skills may include:
- Building and facilities management
- Health and well being
- Working with young or older people
- Events management
- Café/retail management
Good management of the organisation can be illustrated by showing that key skills are in place. You may identify skills gaps and want to recruit new Board Members to strengthen your Board.
Good governance
Good governance of your organisation can be illustrated by showing that you are:
- Meeting regularly and making informed decisions, based on research and specialist information as required
- Keeping all reporting to OSCR/ Companies House up to date
- Having good policies, processes and procedures in place.
Policies and procedures
Written policies and procedures will help an organisation to run day to day operations. They make sure everyone knows and adheres to relevant laws and regulations, and keep internal processes simple and systematic, so everyone does things in the same way where it matters.
Policies tend to cover regulations that need to be met and put in place internal structures so that everyone, Board, staff and volunteers, knows what is expected and how things will be done. They can include policies on:
- Complaints
- Conflict of interest
- Assets
- Data and GDPR
- Equality and diversity
- Financial control
- Home and lone working
- Recruitment
- Volunteering
- Health and Safety
- Food and Hygiene
Some examples of template policies
Procedures are also useful written down, so everyone knows how to do things. They may cover things that are useful for people to know like maintenance of a building or piece of equipment, financial processes such as approval of spend or ordering, booking systems or induction of volunteers.
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