How can funders help minimise the time grant seekers and grant holders spend on completing application forms and report forms to give them more time delivering support on the frontline? Carla Marshall shares how Yorkshire Funders have come up with a solution.
For those good grant-makers that take the time to talk and listen to charities and community groups, you will know that one of their biggest frustrations when it comes to the ‘funding system’ is having to complete dozens of different application forms and grant report forms. Research by the Law Family Commission on Civil Society found that small charities with an income of up to £100,000 spent 38% of their total grant income on fundraising applications per year, which doesn’t include time spent on completing grant report forms!
The age-old ‘system’ isn’t working for the VCSE sector and so over the last few years Yorkshire Funders, which connects and empowers grant makers across Yorkshire, has taken action and in January we launched our new Common Report Form (CRF) to run alongside the Common Application Form (CAF) which is now being used by 12 Yorkshire grant makers.
Getting started
In 2021 we formed a CAF Task Force and then in 2025 this evolved to become the CRF Task Force. The key objective for both was to make the application and reporting process for grant seekers and holders faster and easier to save them time and energy. If we could encourage multiple funders to use the common forms for their small grants (under £5,000), charities would find that they are increasingly being asked the same questions, in the same format. Other options such as a portal, where one application could be shared with all or some Yorkshire Funders’ members was discussed, but funding, capacity, along with grant seekers saying they wanted to maintain the relationship they have with each funder made the common forms a more realistic route to take.
IVAR’s Open & Trusting and Better Reporting initiatives were inspirational starting points for the CAF and CRF Task Forces. For both the application form and the report form we started off by analysing the content of each Task Force member’s forms and agreeing the most common questions to include, whilst at the same time taking learnings from IVAR’s work and ensuring we implemented these recommendations.
We kept coming back to: what do most funders need to know, what do grant holders want to share, and what do funders do with the information they receive?
Frontline feedback
For both the CAF and the CRF, it was vital to ensure that funding advisors from local infrastructure organisations and leaders from small charities and community groups were involved in the form design and content. Once the CRF Task Force – which included ASDA Foundation, Sheffield University and Leeds Community Foundation – had developed a draft report form, we ran a focus group to get grant holders’ input. One of the most striking things we learnt during this session was that a shorter report form isn’t always a good thing and the focus group members felt we had made it too short. Our Sheffield University Task Force member, Dr Steph A Ejegi-Memeh also made us think a lot about the amount of words most grant report forms require you to write. For those that have English as a second language, a learning disability or are new to the funding sector, writing a summary for every question can be exhausting and so we adopted the style of ASDA Foundation’s digital forms which have a number of multiple-choice answers that are easy to answer and provide excellent data for analysis.
We had six focus group themes and these are a good guide for any funders reviewing their forms:
1. Format – what format do you think would work best? Online, Word document, other?
2. Content & length – are the questions clear, reasonable and proportionate? Are they what you would expect? Is there anything missing? Are the number of word guidelines suitable?
3. Language – is the language used clear and simple and in particular, what is your view about how those involved in your work should be referred to – service users/beneficiaries/ community/the people you support, other?
4. Grant size – should this report form be just for small, one-off grants (c. £5K or less) or could it be for larger grants and multi-year grants too?
6. Time – if many funders in Yorkshire used this form, would that save your organisation time in reporting on your work? And would completing the CRF take you the right amount of time for the grant size?
Vivienne Hughes, a freelance fundraiser for small Yorkshire charities who took part in the focus group said: “This is one of those issues that people have spoken about for a long time, but everybody felt like it was impossible to tackle. I think it's brilliant that Yorkshire Funders are actively trying to change ‘the system’ and it makes non-profits think: ‘Oh, they are trying, they are bothered about our time and they actually care. They are listening to us and they listen to our feedback’.
“The CAF and CRF aren’t a perfect solution, but the fact they have been created and are being used is a massive step in the right direction. It allows fundraisers and grant holders to maintain their relationship with each funder and when we start to see similar application and report forms they will come into their own and it will be beneficial, but I think that it will take time for that to happen. Yorkshire Funders have realised that you need flexibility for the forms to be usable. They are encouraging funders to use the forms as a guide and hope they won’t make huge changes because then the forms aren’t common, but at the same time acknowledging that each funder is different and may need to adapt them slightly.”
CRF and CAF Resources
Together, the CAF and CRF cut down administration for grant seekers and grant holders, freeing up vital time and energy when it matters most, so if it’s time to review your forms, have a look at the templates.
Dr Katy Adams from Sheffield University has written a report on the CAF, including interviews with funder adopters and grant applicants. You can read her full report (or abridged summary).
For further information on Yorkshire Funders contact alex@yorkshirefunders.org.uk
If you would like to find out more about the CRF and CAF, email carla@yorkshirefunders.org.uk
The Funders Collaborative Hub publishes a range of perspectives. The views expressed here are those of the authors, not necessarily those of ACF.
