Write a grant application
Turn your project notes into a funder-ready answer: need, response, outcomes, and evidence, inside the word limit.
Yours to copy, change, and make your own.
Replace every [BRACKETED PLACEHOLDER] with your own material before you send it.
Help me draft an answer to a grant application question. Funder and programme: [FUNDER AND FUND] What the funder says it wants to achieve: [FUNDER PRIORITIES] The exact question and word limit: [QUESTION AND WORD LIMIT] Our project: [PROJECT] Who it serves and how many: [BENEFICIARIES] Evidence we hold: [EVIDENCE] Budget and what it covers: [BUDGET] Draft the answer: 1. Answer the question that was asked, in its own words, in the first sentence. 2. Need, then response, then outcome. Say how you will know it worked. 3. Use our evidence explicitly. Where a claim has nothing behind it, mark it [EVIDENCE NEEDED] rather than asserting it. 4. Mirror the funder's priorities in the funder's vocabulary, but never claim work we do not do. 5. Stay inside the word limit and tell me the final count. Rules: - Plain English. No "leverage", no "synergies". A trustee of the funder should follow it on one read. - Do not invent partners, statistics, accreditations, or track record. - Use British English.
- [FUNDER AND FUND]
- The funder and the specific programme you are applying to.
- [FUNDER PRIORITIES]
- Their stated aims, pasted from the guidance rather than paraphrased.
- [QUESTION AND WORD LIMIT]
- The question exactly as written on the form, and its word limit.
- [PROJECT]
- What you will do, where, and over what period.
- [BENEFICIARIES]
- Who benefits and how many, using numbers you can evidence.
- [EVIDENCE]
- Data, evaluations, or feedback you hold and could show on request.
- [BUDGET]
- The amount requested and the main things it pays for.
Where it shines, and where it falls over.
- First drafts of narrative questions on trust and foundation applications
- Cutting an over-long answer to a word limit without losing the argument
- Rewriting the same project for a second funder with different priorities
- Paste the funder guidance and the assessment criteria in full before the question. The draft improves more from that than from anything you say about your project.
- Ask afterwards: "You are the assessor scoring this out of 10 against the published criteria. What did you mark it down for?"
Models are fluent about impact, which is exactly the danger on a funding form. Invented beneficiary numbers, borrowed statistics, and partnerships you have only discussed are misrepresentation on a grant application, and funders do check. Every figure and every named partner must be traceable to something you actually hold.
It also cannot read the funder. It does not know the assessor, the unwritten priorities, what the fund really spent last year, or that this programme quietly favours consortium bids. Use the draft for structure and clarity, then have someone who knows the funder rewrite the emphasis.
AI output is a first draft, not a finished product. You are responsible for whatever you send, publish, or decide with it.
More prompts worth exploring.
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Write an impact report
Turn activity data and beneficiary feedback into a report that separates outputs from outcomes and is honest about the gaps.