Meeting Funding Deadlines

Three top tips for meeting a funding deadline. It’s that time again when a funding deadline date is approaching fast and as I and the team I am working with race towards this, I am reflecting on what this involves. My top three tips for surviving (and meeting) deadlines are:

1. Be honest with yourself and the other people involved about your own working style. Are you a last-minute person or the type of person who likes to be ahead of time? Both personality types will get the job done but these different approaches can rub each other up the wrong way and one can find it hard to cope with the other especially when a deadline looms. Be clear about your expectations and, if necessary, agree internal deadlines in advance.
2. Make sure you know who needs to sign off your application and what this might involve. If you need a Chair of trustees or a CEO to approve a bid, you need to give this person plenty or warning and make sure they book some time in their diary to read through the work. If they have booked time in advance, it is perfectly reasonable to only give then 24 hours to process the information (if not, then you reasonably need to allow a lot longer for them to read through everything).
3. Do not underestimate the time needed to format your work and upload to funders’ online systems.