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.