Bid Writing
Do you have a great idea for a project but you need support in getting the right funding in place?
At Growing Circles, we understand that ambitious projects which create meaningful outcomes for communities and grow your business often need to raise finance to get them off the ground.
Our expert team understands the challenges that come from designing a project that achieves your goals whilst also meeting funders priorities and award criteria. We break our offer down into steps so that our team can work alongside you to grow your ideas into a funded reality, at whichever stage you need us.
“Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.”
Norman Vincent Peale, author of ‘The Power Of Positive Thinking’
Is lack of funding holding you back from delivering your next ambitious venture?
It can be hard to find the time to step out of delivering your business and put energy into resourcing a new project.
Our Bid Writing package guides you through all stages of the process from generating great ideas to writing a brilliant bid.
We support your project to meet its full potential and our experienced team work with you to guide you to success.
Our Approach
At Growing Circles, we believe that by supporting more highly skilled, passionate and socially minded businesses to receive funding, we are playing a key role in creating a fairer and more equal society. We know that funding bids can be daunting and we specialise in working alongside you to share the journey from idea to the celebratory after-party.
Products and Pricing
Project Ideation
First things first, we will lead you and your team through a visioning and strategy session. During this face to face or virtual meeting, we will explore your intended outcomes and work together to come up with creative ideas and identify potential projects. We will then help you to select which project or projects you want to take forward.
Project Design
Moving into the Project Design phase, we dive deeply into on your chosen idea to scope out the project in detail. We can include your key customers in this stage of the design process. We will select a bid writer who understande your sector and the relevant funding landscape so that we position your project for success. Following the session we will provide you with a project brief which will form the basis of any subsequent bid writing or fundaraising strategy.
Bid Horizon Scanning
At this point, the Growing Circles team will research possible funding options that fit the Project outline. We aim to identify several funding options. A wise man once told our founder, Kris, that you should aim to fund a project three times over to maximise chances of success, and we believe him and work to this principle. Even the best projects don’t get funded every time so this provides additional options to avoid disappointment. We’ll talk you through the options and agree which funds to want to prioritise and go for first.
Bid Writing
Once we have signed off the project brief and feel we know your project inside and out, the Growing Circles team will write your chosen funding bid(s)! Our experienced team will draft the bid application and then ensure you have the opportunity to carefully read through and offer any feedback or discuss amendments.
This product will be charged at an hourly rate based on actual time spent, this is due to the variation in the length of application processes for different funding sources but we will give an indication of timelines based on our previous experience.
We’d recommend that when you choose to work with our bid writing service, that we are part of the process from at least the Project Design stage so we have the best understanding of your funding needs giving you the best chance of success.
If you are just starting out or if your social enterprise or charity has a turnover of less that £100k per year, talk to us as we may be able to offer you discounted rate.
Book a curiosity session with us to find out more.