Red Tape Busters

Something that is often overlooked in the tender writing process is the need to read all of the documents provided by the agency offering the tender. The inexperienced tender writer will pay scant regard to most of the documents and focus more on the tender specifications document. This is a failed strategy and in this case study we demonstrate why it is important to read all documents. We were contacted by a client who had started preparing a response to the tender and had commenced completing the tender response form but was having difficulty in completing the application. Our grant writer initially asked the client for all of the documents that related to the tender application and was promptly forwarded the application form. Our tender writer suggested that there must be more documents provided by the Council is Conditions of Contract, Technical Specifications of Offer, General Conditions of Offer and Special Conditions of Offer. The client advised that they had not dow...

This is Case Study 6 in our series of grant writing articles. In this instalment we will look at the Bulimba Bowls Club and their efforts to get major repairs to their roof funded. An inexperienced grant writer would try and find a funding program which will fund the entire repair works which was in the vicinity of $100k. At Red Tape Busters we realise that grant writing opportunities in the vicinity of $100k are few and far between. So our skilled grant writer set about identifying if we could break the project down into smaller sub projects and then find two or more grants that will be viable to fund the entire project over time. In the first instance we asked the Club to work with their proposed roof repair contractor to see if the project could in fact be split into sub projects. The contractor agreed that we could split the project up into two smaller projects – and if funding was achieved the club could undertake the repairs in stages. First we identified a smaller program ...

This is Case Study 5 in our series of grant writing articles highlighting different cases and strategies we at Red Tape Busters have worked on since we commenced business in 2000. This article will focus on how to create some “selling” points when preparing a grant application for a rural based organisation. The skilled grant writer will be able to easily “sell” the project and the need for funding if the organisation is based in a rural or remote area. Rarely if ever are we unsuccessful with a grant submission for a rural or remote organisation. With this particular organisation they were seeking funding for a youth based training and skills development program. Given most of the youth had left town over the years and the general population numbers were dwindling the organisation felt they did not really have a sound case to pursue funding. Our skilled grant writer however initially worked with the client on their project and worked hard to identify what sorts of training an...

As we have discussed in this series of case studies previously, tender writing is far more than being the cheapest price. Yes tender writing success does depend to a degree on price but the skilled tender writer will be able to develop a “sales” pitch which sets their tender apart from the competition and price will then become just one of many key platforms from which the organisation can launch a successful bid. In this Case Study our client was seeking our assistance in winning a tender with Woolworths to provide supermarket trolleys. Our client was an Australian based company wanting to challenge overseas importers. This was going to be a very tough task for our grant writer seeing the overseas companies were buying the raw materials cheaply overseas and were then paying cheap labour to construct the trollies. We were able to convince our client to source raw materials also from overseas at a good price but source materials and parts that exceeded Australian standards. In...

In our series of grant writing case studies – this is the third installment. Again in this article will showcase the skills of our grant writers and give readers tips on how to improve their grant writing chances.   We were approached in this instance by a club in a rural area affected by drought which was seeking funding to restump their community hall. The project was going to cost $50000 and the club needed assistance in finding appropriate funding programs which would fund a $50k project. At Red Tape Busters we are very strategic in our approach to the grant writing task. So initially we worked with the client on their project to identify if there was any way of breaking the project up into smaller components in case there were no $50k funding opportunities around given the higher the funding amount needed – the less funding opportunities that exist.  In working with the client we identified that there is not much scope to restump a hall in different stages giv...

Many people think you need to be a qualified writer or have some formal qualifications to be a great grant writer. It is a common misnomer that many in the non profit world and especially micro non profits believe that they can’t compete with grant writers from larger organisations because the grant writers are more skilled, more experienced or have tertiary qualifications which will give them the edge in the grant writing process. I will give you a real life example of how this misnomer was reinforced to me as a total falsehood. This actually happened when I first started as a grant writer 16 years ago and it is something I am very proud of but also clearly proved to me that you don’t need a qualification to be a great grant writer.  I was contracted as a grant writer to a medium sized non profit organisation in the disability sector when I first started this business 16 years ago. The State Government had released funding for the purpose of building accommodation specifical...

Tender writing is not just about filling out a form and a pricing spreadsheet. Inexperienced tender writers will not put much thought into what is required to prepare a great tender response whereas the experienced tender writer will understand that having a strategy and game plan is as important as having a great price to offer. So what sorts of strategies can you put in place to maximise your chances with a tender? In this article I relay a real case study of a tender we prepared for a client and the tactics we put in place to be successful. In this situation our client, a non profit organisation on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, became aware of a tender opportunity relating to the provision of housing/accommodation for people with disabilities. At that stage my client had no thoughts about delivering accommodation services and was primarily solely a provider of support services for those with a disability in the local area of Nambour. This posed a tremendous issue in ...