When an organisation applies to us, one of the most common questions is “how likely are we to receive funding?” There can be lots of factors that determine this with decisions made on a case-by-case basis. To give a general indicator though of what the chances might be of receiving a grant, we have been providing our success rates.

Here is our latest:

A high or low success rate

Having a high success rate for a grant doesn’t guarantee receiving funding. Likewise, a low success rate doesn’t mean you won’t be successful in applying. Success rates can vary as well. While some stay fairly consistent, others will go up or down.

As decisions are case-by-case, the best thing is to make a strong an application as you can and assume it will be competitive.

Being offered less than you applied for

While we aim to provide the amount of funding applied for, sometimes we have to offer less than what was requested. The success rates given above are for all grants offered which might include organisations that received a lower amount than what they asked for.

Not everyone gets to apply

Other than National Lottery Awards for All Scotland and Young Start, organisations have to contact us to potentially receive an application form. If there is no realistic potential of being funded, we are unlikely to recommend applying. In turn, an application won’t be given.

This means the success rates above are only based on organisations who were able to make an application.

Stage two applications

For some of our grants there is a stage two application form. This is completed if the stage one application application has been successful. Stage two applications are used for Community Assets, large grants for improving lives and Scottish Land Fund.

Stage two applications will normally have a higher success rate compared to stage one applications. This is mainly because there will be fewer applications made and only those with strong potential to receive funding will be recommended to apply.

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