Policies that give funders confidence

(not very exciting, but important!)

If you’re getting started with grant funding, do a check to make sure your organisation’s policies are on point.

Funders often ask for copies of policies as part of the application process, as they want to know your organisation is safe, well‑run, and taking its responsibilities seriously.

A few small but practical steps that can help:

✔️ Focus on the key ones first
For a large number of grant applications you will need safeguarding, data protection, health and safety, equality and diversity, and a reserves policy. There may also be other key policies depending on the nature of your work, but these are the most often requested.

✔️ Put everything in one place
Create a single folder where you keep the latest, approved versions and make sure everyone who needs to be able to access them can.

✔️ Add simple review dates
You don’t need to rewrite everything every year, but you do need to make sure they’re still working for you and all of the details are current. Adding a review date, putting this in your calendar, and building this into trustee/director meeting timetables, can help make sure this doesn’t get missed.

✔️ Link policies to practice
Be ready to show how you actually use them, for example, how safeguarding is embedded in your work, not just on paper.

Getting these basics in order can save time and panic. When you're asked to attach an up-to date policy for a grant application with a looming deadline, that you've already spend a lot of time on, you'll be good to go! 😁

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