What’s the chance of getting that grant?

Applying for funding is always something of a lottery – and often one you don’t know the odds of winning. Some funders are good at publishing applications rates, or at least full grants lists via 360 Giving or their own websites, so it’s sometimes possible to work out rough chances of success, but there’s often no way to know how likely you are to make the cut before investing precious time and energy in applying.

Fortunately, the convenience store SPAR has made it easy with the latest round of their £100k Community Cashback fund that has just reopened for 2025. Before you get too excited and rush off to apply though, here’s what their press release says:

 “After rewarding 40 different local organisations, and receiving over 11,000 entries last year, SPAR is back with the £100k Community Cashback campaign in 2025 and looking to help even more communities!”

11,000 applications for 40 grants gives applicants a 1 in 275 or 0.36% chance of success. When you factor in that the substantive part of the application form amounts to two 300-word questions about your work and what you’d do with a grant, there’s not even a lot of scope there to stand out and improve those odds beyond pure luck with an exceptional application.

Used well, a short and simple application can be a great way of reducing the time and effort required to apply (and is one of the recommendations of NCVO’s recent The Power of Small report) but if the result is a funding round that produces nearly 11,000 rejected applications, is it even doing enough good to offset the wasted time charities have spent applying for it? If every applicant spent an hour on their submission, at the current UK minimum wage that’s a cost to the applicants of £134,310 for a £100,000 pot, and that’s before you factor in the poor souls at SPAR having to read, assess, shortlist and make the awards.

So why do these kinds of programmes keep cropping up?

Part of the problem is that a large part of their success is measured by the impact on the donor’s brand, rather than solely on the impact of the funded activity on the cause or beneficiaries they are helping.  The social media footprint of this kind of grant making is massive, and the reach that the companies get about the brand-associated good work they are doing is off the scale, especially for the investment of what is usually a modest grant pot.

The easier the application process and the lower the barriers to applying, the higher the number of applications and the higher the engagement – the grants get made whatever happens, so the case studies and good news stories keep rolling in, the customers associate the good news with the brand, and the clicks, shares and applications continue to rise. Great for the company profile, brilliant for the internal reporting of clicks, shares and likes, not so good for the 11,000 fundraisers who’ve just wasted their time on an application.

Presenting wasteful numbers of applications as a measure of success isn’t new, especially for corporate funders, but it’s increasingly at odds with what we’re seeing from charitable trusts and foundations that are taking drastic steps to manage or reduce demand by closing programmes early, redesigning funding criteria and processes, or closing to any new applications at all.

Company giving often occupies a weird spot in the funding landscape, with funding from larger companies typically either coming as big charity-of-the-year type funding for bigger charities, or much smaller, local and community-focused grants – with not an awful lot in between. But as competition for funding increases, and charitable trusts and foundations are seeing more and more demand for the same (or less) funding, lots of charities are looking to corporate funders for the first time.

If you’re a grant-seeking charity looking to increase your odds of getting corporate support, avoid high-effort/low-return ballots or beauty parades, and find companies that can support your work in a sustainable and meaningful way, check out The Guide to UK Company Giving and Funds Online from DSC.

If you’re a corporate (or charitable) funder looking for ways to better understand the impact you’re having with your giving, or want help designing and developing efficient and effective programmes, drop us a line at [email protected] and arrange a chat with our Funder Support team.