Grant writing for your park group

Every great community park project starts with a big idea—and often, a little extra funding to bring it to life. 

If your park group has dreams of building a new pollinator garden, organizing a community arts festival, or even hiring a new staff person to keep everything organized, grants can be a powerful tool to achieve and sustain your vision. Navigating grant applications can feel a little overwhelming at first. That’s why we’ve assembled this guide to walk you through the steps, share helpful tips, and offer resources that can make the journey smoother. 

Let’s get your park project the support it deserves!

Who gives out grants?

There are several types of organizations that give money to grassroots parks groups:

• Private foundations, which have a pool of money set aside for (often specific) charitable purposes.
• Governments at the municipal, provincial and federal levels, which have grant programs available from specific departments or ministries such as immigration, culture, or the environment.
• Corporations, which often run grant programs tied to their community relations or marketing goals. 

To find the most relevant opportunities for your group:  

• Start with Park People’s resource on grant programs available in different cities.
• Check out similar park groups in your area to see who’s funding their activities. Look at their website, read their annual reports, or simply give them a call!
• Ask around your community to see if anyone has a background in fundraising, and if they’d be willing to do a search for relevant grants for you. Many professional fundraisers have access to databases of grant opportunities that can’t always be found through a traditional web search.

Choosing a Grant

Writing grant applications takes time and energy, so you’ll want to be strategic about which ones you apply for. Closely examine the criteria for each grant to make sure that your park group has a chance to be funded (or whether you’re even eligible to apply). 

You’ll want to look for:

• Size of grant: As a general rule, the bigger the grant, the more involved the application process, and the more competition. Your group may prefer to start small to get comfortable with grant writing before you seek major funding.
• Funding timeline: Look at the listed dates. Will you have time to put together a complete application before the deadline? If you’re successful, will the funds become available in time for your proposed project?
• Organizational requirements: Many grants require you to have certain systems or designations in place. For example, you might need to be a registered charity, with a Board of Director, to be eligible. 
• Geographic focus: Is your work located within the funder’s catchment area?
• Uniqueness of your project: While funders often support many groups working on a similar issue, if your request is too similar to an initiative they’ve funded recently, they may consider it redundant. Check their website to find their list of funded projects, or better yet, contact a staff person to ask about whether your project might interest them.

Creating your Budget

Every granting organization wants to know that you have a realistic, detailed budget for your project. Your budget should:

• List everything you will need to spend money on, separated into categories. Be as accurate, and as realistic, as possible. 
• Show the dollar value of things you already have, including donations, volunteer time, space to hold the event, services or goods.
• Then, add up the categories to show the total amount required and the value of what you have already. If the grant money offered isn’t sufficient to cover all your expenses, write a summary explaining how you’ll make up the difference.

Writing with Impact

Many worthy organizations are vying for every grant that’s available. To stand out from the pack, you’ll want to tell your park group’s story in a compelling way that’s irresistible to funders. Here are our top tips for the writing to persuade:

• Match their tone: Start by thoroughly reading through the funder’s website to understand how they talk about their work and impact. For example, if they are formal and data-driven, avoid flowery or vague language in your application. Or, if they often share personal stories from their grantees, consider inserting more of a narrative approach into your own summaries.
• Meet their goals. What is your funder trying to achieve? Let’s say you’re planning an Indigenous-led plant identification workshop. If your funder’s goal is ecological sustainability, you may wish to highlight how this workshop will build participant’s appreciation and respect for their environment. If their goal is community building and civic engagement, talk about how the workshop will help bring people together and improve their cultural awareness. 
• Start from zero. Assume that the person reading your grant application has no familiarity with your organization or your project. Briefly explain the history of your group, how it functions, the impact it’s had, the context of your surrounding community, and why what you do matters.
• Keep it clear, simple and concise. Seek to get your point across using the bare minimum number of words—and simple words, at that. Keep sentences short, and consider using a readability checker to ensure your text is understandable for all reading levels.
• Keep it evidence-based. Whenever possible, cite tangible examples of what your park group has already  achieved to build confidence in what you intend to do. Avoid talking about what you wish could happen, or what you might do at some point in the future.
• Demonstrate your commitment to inclusivity: Funders want to support projects that meaningfully engage their communities. Demonstrate how your group centres equity in your work, especially through programming that reflects your neighbourhood’s diversity—including age, ethnicity, ability, language, etc.
• Show the lasting effects: Many funders want their gifts to be investments, and hope to see their funded projects generate impact after their initial funds are spent. Explain how their funds will be used to build your group’s capacity, for example, by recruiting new volunteers to sustain the work.
• Proofread, then proofread again. No matter how many times you review your own work, it’s inevitable that some minor error will slip through. Before submitting an application, get someone else to proof and/or edit your work. Ask them to check that the terminology used is consistent, that you’re following application instructions and answering questions directly, and that all of the attachments and documents required are provided exactly as they have requested

Handling Rejection

So you’ve submitted your application and received the bad news—your project hasn’t been selected for a grant. It’s a disappointment for sure, but remember, “no” can often mean “not yet.” If you’re rejected, contact the funder to ask for any feedback they can share about their decision. Perhaps your work is better suited to a different grant they offer, or your application was missing something you can add for the next funding cycle.  

Celebrate Success

Hurray, you’ve been approved! Okay, is it time to break out the bubbly? Not quite. First, you will want to do a few things:

• Send a thank you note to the funder
• Confirm how and when you will receive the funds
• Ask if the funder requires any additional documents
• Clarify how they would like to be recognized by your group (displaying their logo, etc.)
• Review your reporting requirements and set up a system to track finances and other deliverables
• Save all your application materials so that you can learn from what worked, and replicate your success for the next grant opportunity.

Okay, now go celebrate!