At TFN, we both make grants to the charities that pitch at our events and receive grants from organisations that contribute to our own core costs. We use this first-hand experience of the challenges and stress involved on both sides of the grant-making fence to inform our own charity application and selection process.

When we open charity applications* for a forthcoming event (usually around 6-8 weeks before the event) our charity manager, Inês, gets ready to support organisations applying. This may involve introductory calls to explain how our model works and what they may (or may not be) getting themselves into and establish if the organisation is a good fit and therefore a good investment of their precious time to write the application. 

If and when a charity decides to proceed with a written application, we aim to make the questions as straightforward and transparent as possible – what does the organisation do and for whom, how do they know there is a need for their work, how would they spend a grant from TFN? How will the measure the impact of the grant?

Recognising that many of the small charities we support do not have a lot of experience writing applications and/or they may not be writing in their first language, we are happy to offer high level feedback on draft applications. By this we mean checking if the answers are clearly expressed and free of jargon, rather than detailed commentary on their work or approach. 

Throughout the process we try to be flexible. We know that each small charity has its own context and model, and these often comes with nuances. Although we have clear eligibility criteria – we do our best to accommodate different variations of what we consider to be the norm. 

Charities are selected by a panel of members who have the opportunity to review the written applications and rank them, taking into account their view of the need for their work, the impact TFN funds could have, the extent to which the organisation is guided by the experience of those it serves and whether they would personally fund it. More on that in the future. 

Lastly, we are aware that our process of written applications followed by Zoom interviews for shortlisted candidates, favours those with competent English language communications skills. In the future, and as we grow, we will look to make the process more widely accessible – for now, we feel that we are offering the appropriate level of support and guidance for our size and capacity.

Our aim is that the process is valuable whether organisations go no further than an initial phone call, are shortlisted but unsuccessful or they are selected and go all the way through to pitching at an event.

*All charities that apply to TFN must be nominated by a member. We do not accept unsolicited applications.