Grant guide
Board pack for grant applications and trustee approval
Some grant decisions need trustee, director or committee approval before a team can apply. A good board pack makes the decision clear, evidenced and proportionate.
Teams deciding where to spend application time
Charity and CIC leaders preparing internal approval for higher-value, higher-risk or strategically important grant applications.
Make the first review more concrete
Prepare a board pack or trustee decision note for a grant application.
Review workflow
What FundingLens helps you do
Keep source facts, caveats and next actions together so your team can decide what deserves attention before application work starts.
Summarise the opportunity, funder purpose, requested amount, match requirement, deadline, restrictions, delivery commitments and reporting burden.
Set out the decision needed, conflicts or related-party issues, delegated authority, financial controls and risks to reserves or cash flow.
Attach source citations and readiness gaps so trustees can see what is known, what is assumed and what still needs review.
Readiness checks
- Decision, authority and conflicts recorded.
- Opportunity fit and source caveats summarised.
- Budget, match funding and restricted-fund issues reviewed.
- Delivery capacity and reporting obligations assessed.
- Finance sign-off and source-cited evidence included.
Eligibility caveats
- This is governance support, not legal advice.
- Approval needs vary by governing document, delegation rules and grant risk.
- Boards should not approve applications on AI summaries without source review.
Source references
Use Charity Commission guidance to frame board or trustee approval as a documented, informed decision with conflicts and risks considered.
Official sourceThe essential trusteeUse the official trustee duties guidance when grant decisions need governance, purpose, risk and resource checks.
Official sourceCharity internal financial controlsUse Charity Commission controls guidance to support budget approval, delegated authority, fraud prevention and finance sign-off checks.
Official sourceCharity reserves guidanceUse reserves guidance when a grant decision needs to consider restricted funds, match funding, cash flow and financial resilience.
Related FundingLens pages
Use this grant readiness checklist to decide whether a funding opportunity deserves application time, evidence gathering and internal approval.
Grant guideGrant budget template with eligible-cost checksBuild a grant budget template that checks eligible costs, overheads, VAT, match funding, evidence and funder-specific exclusions before you apply.
Grant guideOpportunity scoring for grant decisions before you applyUse opportunity scoring to triage grants by eligibility, strategic fit, deliverability, budget risk, evidence strength and deadline readiness.
Draft notes guideSource-cited draft notes for grant applicationsUse AI draft notes for grant preparation while keeping official source citations, caveats and human review clearly visible.