Another reason for grantmaking applications to fail
Howard Lake | 14 June 2007 | Blogs
UK Fundraising receives a fair few grant applications, despite the fact that it is run by a private, for-profit company. For some eager souls, clearly the word “fundraising” equates to “money on offer for my particular organisation or project”.
While we reply politely to as many as we can, we have noticed a few applications that, if replicated elsewhere, will enjoy a very poor response rate from real grantmakers. A letter arrived this morning from a Berkshire-based charity asking for funding. Unfortunately it had originally been sent with insufficient postage.
Simply in order to have this poorly targeted application, UK Fundraising had to pay the Royal Mail £1.06.
Imagine the reaction from real grantmaking trusts if they need to start paying this kind of fee simply because a fundraiser or one of their colleagues in the post room hasn’t managed to grasp the praticalities of paying the right amount for a stamp.
Ironically, UK Fundraising did end up paying out in response to the grant application – but to the Royal Mail, not the charity.
So, are you confident your grant applications have the right postage on?
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.