WDCD Live brings together creatives, policymakers, and change-makers to explore how design can drive real impact. But to generate impact, you must first generate funds. Funding Futures, run by Arthur Steiner from New Silk Roads, was an in-depth masterclass designed to help creatives from a variety of disciplines and ventures to better navigate the funding labyrinth and make their vision of impactful change a reality.
Funding is a vital part of launching and sustaining any initiative, but securing it can feel like a Herculean task. How can you get funding in an era when budget streams are both more complex and increasingly stagnant? How can creative and moral ambitions be aligned with the objective need to financially fund a project? And in a world in which international cooperation is more frequent — and important — than ever, how can projects navigate country-specific barriers to funding?
The Funding Futures workshop brought together artists, product designers, researchers and charity professionals to gain insight into these issues, and learn how to manoeuvre around them. Hosted at the WDCD HQ in Amsterdam, and led by Arthur Steiner from New Silk Roads, a boutique consultancy agency working at the intersection of technology, innovation and the arts, supporting impact-driven organisations and businesses to thrive.
Steiner has spent years working with both sides of the funding matrix, providing strategic advice and facilitation to foundations, philanthropists and impact investors, while simultaneously delivering coaching and training around fundraising and proposal writing to creative entrepreneurs. He is someone who knows both sides of the coin, and knows how to help tomorrow’s change makers find coin for their own projects.
Some participants came from social enterprises, others were freelancers or studio owners. The workshop covered different types of funders and investment trends, how to find the right funding to apply for, and what makes a successfully-written proposal. But rather than a basic how-to, participants were offered a topological guide for the funding landscape, enabling them to shape and tailor their research for their specific projects and backgrounds and pursue a more fruitful grant-seeking journey.
FUNDING, AND WHERE TO FIND IT
From free funding databases and social media to networking and paid fundraising services, there are many routes to finding pots of funding — but there’s no single rainbow leading to them. The challenge is knowing where to start your search, and being diligent in maintaining awareness of the lastest news and announcements around call-outs, opportunities, and networking events. There is a whole web of networks out there which are waiting to catch interesting, innovative projects, but like all things, they need to be known to be found.
The landscape is wide, and varied. From government agencies, multilateral donors like UNESCO and bilateral cultural institutes like the British Council, to private and corporate foundations, to INGOs and impact investors, there are many pockets of funding waiting to be utilised. Awards can also be a useful funding stream, although they are less likely to deliver funding at the same scale as an investment or government fund.
Steiner signposted participants to an array of databases, newsletters and networking opportunities they could use to find the most suitable funding for their initiative. With experience working in the Netherlands, Egypt and Tunisia, Steiner’s advice came from both within and outside of Europe. With a diverse range of participants from across the world, care was made to balance both Netherlands-specific and global resources.
The political landscape in the EU, particularly with widespread budget restrictions across member nations may be unstable, but there remains a plentitude of opportunities. Avenues like Creative Europe, CulturEU, and Horizon Europe, offer a variety of guides and resources to match change makers and project partners to funding.
FILTER YOUR FUNDS
The biggest obstacle that participants widely acknowledged? Time limitations. That’s where Steiner’s straightforward GO/NO form comes in. An easy, yet potentially confronting, bullet-point list can identify the true cost of securing funding in terms of application time, efficacy, eligibility, size, priority alignment and competition. There is no point throwing yourself into grant applications if the projected outcome may not be worth the time or energy sink.
Raising funds can be stressful, which is not mitigated by unreservedly applying to all and any call-outs. Part of developing a successful fundraising practice is having the discernment to do the research and filter out the most beneficial opportunities for your goals. An application derived from a curated list is more likely to be successful in part due to the prior research completed, as it ensures from the outset that the founder’s goals are adequately aligned with the funder’s.
THE WHO-WHAT-WHY OF FUNDERS
Finding the right kind of funder to fit the project is important. With each different type of funder comes different funding types, structures, and commitments. Service providers such as government agencies and independent companies tend to work to commission or tender, require a specific job to be completed, and offer financing based on results.
Meanwhile Impact funds — which includes private foundations and bilateral donors — provide up-front grants and often work with the recipient to deliver the intended outcome. Alternatively, Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists are solely financially motivated, offering up-front funding and potential collaboration to ensure profitable delivery of goals — but it can also come with challenges surrounding conflict of interest or ethical and political considerations.
Challenging this is Impact investing, a young, but significantly growing sector, with the market having increased from $1.164 trillion to $1.571 trillion in the last year alone¹. Providing investment in various forms including venture capital, quasi-equity, social impact bonds, and recoverable grants, Impact Investing is gaining particular momentum in the arts and culture sectors. Between Impact Investing Funds, Philanthropic Foundations, Institutions, Banks, and specific High Net Worth Individuals, money talks — and while the current market share is small, the cash is saying that Impact Investing in sustainability, culture and creativity, are rising up the agenda.
THE RISKS
Beyond the risk of failing to deliver agreed-upon outcomes, receiving funding can potentially bring with it reputational risks due, for instance, to the controversial agenda or history of the donor, or legal risks, such as when receiving money from a foreign entity or government. It was noted that multiple governments have increased restrictions on foreign funding, jeopardising the ease of cross-cultural collaboration, and potentially endangering grant recipients.
As such, it may be preferable to choose not to apply to, or to even refuse funds, rather than experience long term reputational and institutional damage. Equally, philanthropy is not purely charitable, and the source of some private philanthropists’ wealth may be invested in an area that is morally misaligned with an initiative’s mission. Even if accepting money from a dubious source may be seen as the pursuit of a greater good if the project it funds achieves significant goals, accepting such funding may compromise the ability to gain funding from other foundations in the future who may oppose the grant on moral grounds.
PROSPECT PLANNING
The most practical advice given to participants came in the form of the Prospect Pipeline. Designed to be completed as part of a founder or group’s organisational strategy, a Prospect Pipeline is a spreadsheet (or Notion/Monday/Asana board) designed to help find potential open funding opportunities, interesting future donors, and keep on top of funding trends.
Your Prospect Pipeline should be regularly updated with the latest donor intelligence and insights, gained from newsletters, websites, databases, and networking events. Each prospect should be assigned a priority status, with their website, grant size, field of interest/expertise, location, type of funding, and contact details additionally recorded.
This not only simplifies the search for funding, but can also help you to narrow in on which kind of funds your project or organisation is best suited for. For instance, if the field of interest or expertise column your Prospect Pipeline contains multiple, potentially disparate areas, it might be interesting to use this information and reflect on which field you are targeting, and ways you might better hone your niche. Alternatively, you could use this information to your own advantage, and build it into your application or pitch as evidence of the broad utility of your service, product, or intended outcome.
WRITING APPLICATIONS
This is when we get to perhaps the most difficult part of funding applications: writing your proposal. Proposal writing is like diamond grading: clarity is key. Make sure your mission is clear and concisely articulated from the outset, with key information outlined in a way which shows an evolution from mission statement to action to intended outcome and wider purpose. A proposal isn’t a story or biography: it’s a concise articulation of the issue you are working to solve, how you intend to solve it, and why funding is necessary to reach that solution.
Summarise the needs and issues affecting the target group or community you are working with or for. Provide an analysis of the current situation and outline your desired impact. Go big: in ten years time, how will your current initiative have enabled positive societal changes, and what are they? Map predicted obstacles, challenges and actions that may evolve from your application point, along with your desired short-to-medium-term results. You might want to write this as a narrative, or as a visual diagram.
It’s helpful to describe the specifics of your initiative while demonstrating awareness of the industrial and societal context in which you’re working. Include your track record of successfully delivering on previous initiatives, along with the validation of peers or experts if applicable. However, avoid simply name-dropping if it is irrelevant, or cannot be substantiated with supporting evidence.
If you can afford to, it’s possible to outsource proposal writing to a professional grant writer — or an alternative, less reliable AI source such as Grantable or ChatGPT. However, when trying to closely articulate your initiative’s history and goals, a personal perspective with a full understanding of its context and background is invaluable.
If you think you may be a good candidate for a grant, don’t be afraid of reaching out to the funder organisation and checking whether your idea is aligned with theirs. Alternatively, you may want to contact previous grant awardees to gain insight and advice on how to make a successful application to that specific fund or prize.
NETWORKING, NETWORKING, NETWORKING
NGOs are typically looking for partners to collaborate on projects, rather than issuing open calls, and corporate and private investors will not take unsolicited proposals. This is why the Prospect Pipeline is so important, giving you a regularly updated overview of the funding climate, allowing you to keep an eye on call outs. Networking can create relationships which may lead to solicitation for your proposal instead.
Relationships are vital at all stages of business growth, not least during the preliminary phases, and networking events can be useful avenues to meeting the right people. When meeting funders in person, put yourself in their shoes. Everyone is strapped for time and focus, and making your elevator pitch as concise as possible while still including the relevant details is vital. Tell them who you are, what you want — and why. The ‘why’ is expansive: you want to answer why them, why that much in funding, why your initiative is worth it, and why the issue you’re trying to solve is an important one.
Let’s say your proposal is successful and you’re awarded the grant. What else should you bear in mind to deliver on those proposed promises, and will help you gain more funding in the future? Keep your funders regularly informed on developments and the evolution of your initiative. Maintain alignment with your proposal through regular check-ins, and keep to agreed deadlines. Feature donors (with their consent) in your communications and publications, and demonstrate your thanks and commitment to both them and your project.
Funding Futures was an insightful and information-laden masterclass, equipping participants with a practical roadmap to navigate the oft-incomprehensible landscape of project funding, and gain greater confidence to go forth and find funding. Hopefully, we will see the fruits of the seeds planted during the session in the near future.
Words by Rebecca Took, writer, poet and founder of Body Electric based in Amsterdam, NL.