FixFunding - A Campaign for Fundraising Reform

No matter how brilliant an idea is, the odds are stacked against startups and small businesses for funding before they even apply.

FixFunding's objectives are three-fold. To identify the problems and solutions required to help small businesses and not-for-profits improve their ability to obtain grants, investment and loans. Second, to help funders reduce their workload and administrative costs. Third, to agree a roadmap for reform with stakeholders.

Problems Only around 20% of UK applicants obtain funding. Most are simply not fundable or not yet ready for funding. More than 10% don't meet eligibility criteria. To apply, they have to navigate complex, time-consuming and outdated application and assessment processes. And, desperation for funding often overrides common sense with most applicants ending up wasting time, money and effort in applying, they can scarce-afford.

As a result of receiving so many applications, funders' annual, administrative costs are substantial. Well over £1 billion in total. Much of this is down to having to assess 000s of poor-quality applications that are badly written, overly technical, or too vague, making it challenging to review. In the not-for-profit sector, some grant providers are now closing because they cannot handle the demand.

Solutions With input from both "sides of the table", FixFunding will draft recommendations for reform detailing the challenges facing applicants and funders and how these can be overcome. The recommendations will be sent to key stakeholders for discussion with the objective of agreeing a roadmap for implementation.

How you can help If you work at a startup/small business, charity, social enterprise, grant provider, venture capital firm, accelerator, lender or one of the many other types of organisation involved in the fundraising ecosystem, please provide your ideas on how the quality of funding applications and application / assessment processes can be improved. Please also advise your ideas on solutions.

In the meantime, I'll be writing blogs related to fundraising reform and would appreciate your comments.

By working together, we can FixFunding!