Matched Funding

One of the more common questions regarding grant applications is “what is match or matched funding” and what does it mean?

Most grants do not fund the full cost of a particular project or activity, the part the grant doesn’t cover is the matched or match funding. Matched funding is not matching the grant £1 for £1 (or dollar: dollar in the US) it will be a percentage or the total project or activity you are applying for the grant for. For example many arts grants in the UK will fund 90% of a project, the applicant has to put at least 10% matched funding towards the project and maybe more. In some cases the matched can be significantly higher, for example the English development grant under the Grant for Research and Development funds 35-40% of the costs, the applicant has to find 60-65% of the project costs.

It is important therefore to understand before you make the grant application how much you have to contribute, or else you may get a little shock!

There is one further thing to consider about matched funding, some grant schemes require the matched funding to be available in cash (or be generated by a business activities for a business grant), some will however allow an in-kind contribution for example in the time of people involved in the project. Knowing which is allowable for a particular grant scheme is vital so that you do not waste your time in making applications that will be rejected for not having the necessary matched funding.

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Grants Help

Grants Help is designed to be a free resource of guides, hints and tips to those applying for grants to improve the chances of success and reduce applications that stand little, or no, chance. In many cases this guidane will be generic and can be applied across many types of grant, in others they will be specific to a particular grant scheme.

The overall aim is to demystify and explain what certain things mean and what grant scheme administrators will be looking for. At first sight some may seem patronising, if you find that the case then move to the next post. All of the issues covered here have been problem demonstrated in applications assessed by the author whilst running grant schemes for the government for 10 years.

This website does have a UK focus but the generic information presented could be used to improve grant submissions made in other countries.

Please note we do not provide funding, this is an advice site only. Please use the forums for discussion about grants

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