Do funders look at your website when you apply for funding?

Your website gives funders a wider view

A funding application usually focuses on a particular opportunity: the work you want supported, the need behind it and what you hope to achieve. Your website shows more of the organisation around that application. A funder may use it to understand what you do, learn more about your track record, see evidence of your work or check information they have already been given.

Think of the website as part of the wider picture. It should help someone recognise the same organisation they have encountered in the application.

Make sure your website has kept up

Funding applications, websites and impact reports are often written at different times and by different people. That is where gaps start to appear.

Your application may describe a service model introduced this year while the website still explains the old one. Your latest evaluation may contain stronger evidence than the figures online. Your funding applications may now describe the organisation much more clearly than website copy written several years ago.

These differences can create questions that did not need to be there. A funder should not have to work out which version of your organisation is current. The wording can change between a funding application and a website. The underlying meaning should stay consistent.

Make the useful evidence easy to find

If someone moves from your application to your website, they should be able to get a clear sense of:

• what your organisation exists to do;
• who you work with;
• the services or activities you currently provide;
• the difference the work is making;
• evidence or examples supporting important claims;
• relevant contact and organisational information.

This does not require an elaborate website. A simple, current site that accurately represents the organisation can give a funder far more confidence than a polished site containing vague or outdated information. Credibility comes from making what is already true easy to understand and check.

Look for contradictions before you submit

Before an important funding application, view your website as someone encountering the organisation for the first time.

Ask:

1. Does the website describe the same organisation as the application?
2. Are our services, people and impact information current?
3. Can someone easily find evidence supporting the important claims we make?
4. Could anything outdated or contradictory create unnecessary uncertainty?

Pay particular attention to the basics too. The National Lottery Community Fund specifically says information supplied to it should be accurate, up to date and consistent with information in the public domain, including websites and regulatory records.

You don’t need to rewrite the whole website every time you submit a funding application. You do need to notice when the organisation has moved forward and the website has been left behind.