Bidding for Funding – Training Course Outline

One of the biggest challenges you face when bidding for funding is convincing the funder or commissioner that not only do you meet, or exceed, their objectives but that you are best placed to do so efficiently and effectively.

Charities, academic institutions, hospitals and other not-for-profit organisations have to cope with a long and often tortuous process of PQQs and ITTs to secure the funds that enable them to do their job. The pressures of working on long bids to tight deadlines, with so much at stake, are enormous.

Our Bidding for Funding course shows you step-by-step how to write winning bids by making the process easier and more efficient. You will learn insider tips from bid writers experienced in helping organisations like yours write successful bids.

What you will learn on this course

By the end of the course, you will know how to:

• Create a framework for success
• Use the eight principles of good writing to improve your writing style
• Use techniques to make your writing persuasive
• Use techniques to plan and design the structure of your bid
• Collect, evaluate and manage the information gathering process
• Create an Executive Summary that contains your key messages and captures the reader’s interest
• Handle prescriptive bids and create the best structure for free format bids
• Make the best use of illustrations
• Use a checklist to review the quality or your response and edit and proof read your own and others’ work
• Get the best out of writing tools and templates

What our customers say

We have worked with a large number of organisations to help them improve their bid writing and this is what they say about our course:

“I can’t wait to get writing, an excellent course, thank you.”

“An extremely engaging and positive course.”

“The content was excellent, as were the materials provided.”

“Enjoyed the course very much and teacher very good.”

“Elevator pitch exercise was very good fun and extremely useful.”

“Alison was very clear and friendly, making us all comfortable.”

“Instructor gave relevant examples and answered questions throughout.”

“A clear, fun, informative and thought-provoking look at the bidding process.”

“This course should have been available sooner – we may have been more successful.”

“Lots of stuff to go away and reflect upon. Lots and lots of good tips. Sure we can improve our bid writing as a result.”

“Excellent. Changed my perspective.”

“Allowed flexibility with discussion and questions as they arose.”

Course Structure

We provide both a one-day intensive course and a more interactive two-day workshop.

One-day intensive

This is only available as a private course. We will tailor the course to suit your requirements by selecting modules from the course contents below or by designing bespoke modules for you.

Two-day workshop

This course is available both as a public or private course and covers all the modules described below. Over the two-day workshop, you learn the techniques of bid writing through group discussion, exercises and working on real examples of bid documents you bring to the workshop.

Both courses are aimed at people with some bid writing experience. If you’re unsure which course is best for you, give us a call for more details or email

Customised exercises (private courses only)

Customised exercises are included as part of our standard Bidding for Funding course. As part of the training preparation, we would like you to send us one or two sample bids that your organisation has written. These may be made anonymous before sending if you wish, or we can sign a mutual non-disclosure agreement. Our trainer, an experienced bid writer, will use these to create customised, relevant exercises for your delegates to work on during the course.

Please bring these items

We would like delegates to bring with them a bid they are currently working on, or something completed previously, so that they can practise some of the teaching points that arise during training. They can work on their own bids if confidentiality is an issue. If time is available they may also like to consult individually with the trainer on any matters that concern them about their own writing.

Follow up session

Get the most from a staff training day and make sure valuable ideas aren't forgotten by booking a follow-up session. Our trainer will visit you again a month to six weeks after your course to give delegates the chance to:

• discuss how they implemented what they learnt
• go over points from the course
• practise their skills by working on their own writing with the trainer’s help

Course Contents

1. A framework for success

• The BASDELL business writing model – a formula that covers the main elements to consider when writing bids.

2. Easy ways to improve your writing style

• Common pitfalls in bid writing
• The eight principles of clear writing
• Making your writing persuasive

3. Analysing your bid and your readers

• Understanding the ITT
• What type of bid is it? Are there a lot of prescriptive questions? Can you choose the structure and layout?
• Analysing your audience and why it is important to your writing style
• What will persuade the audience to fund you rather than other bidders?

4. Designing your structure

• The benefits of structuring before you start writing
• Three techniques to sequence and structure your material
• How you should construct a compliance matrix and why it can help you
• Presenting adequate information to support your ideas
• Handling pre-defined questions (prescriptive bids) and non-compliance
• Why you don’t always have to follow the structure of the RFP or ITT

5. Developing your solution and strategy

• What are we trying to achieve?
• The four categories of content for a winning bid and how to use them to your best advantage
• How to set your objectives to make sure that you stay on track and keep to the brief
• The importance of using a visual theme to develop your strategy
• Quick and clear messages – what are the critical messages you want to give the customer?
• Planning the writing task

6. Gathering your information

• Finding sources for your data
• Managing the process
• Collecting and evaluating information
• Customising standard or boilerplate text – making it meaningful to the customer
• Customising graphics or turning text into graphics

7. Creating an Executive Summary

• When do you write an Executive Summary and what should it include?
• What structure should you use for an Executive Summary?
• What to include and what to leave out
• Capturing the reader’s interest in the first paragraph

8. Writing your first draft

• How to bring together objective, audience, structure and information
• The importance of the right mindset – how to avoid getting sidetracked
• The four big steps – prepare, draft, relax, polish
• How to write powerful, attention grabbing headings
• How to make your text more readable
• Ensuring you achieve maximum impact
• English – the universal language? Some pointers on making your text suitable for international audiences
• Answering pre-defined questions (prescriptive bids)

9. Using illustrations

• Why do we use illustrations?
• When to use illustrations and how to ensure they are relevant
• The importance of getting it right
• Things to check when including illustrations

10. Editing and proof reading your bid

• The importance of editing your own work before passing it on for review. A top-down approach to improving your text
• Things to check when editing your draft
• Removing commonly confused words, ‘poppycock’, poor punctuation and bad grammar
• Some common punctuation errors and how to avoid them
• Why proof reading is critical. Top tips on how to do it and what to look out for

11. Exploiting the tools

• Using Word™ tools such as spelling and grammar checkers
• Metadata – what it is and how to hide it
• Handling version control
• Using templates to create a consistent layout
• Style guides that are available on the Internet

Book Now!

You can book a private course or call us on +44 (0)844 445 7743.