For this day we were joined by the British Council’s Creative Arts programme in the ‘Preparing, presenting and pitching applications for funds’ session. It was wonderful to have the contributions and participation of a whole range of writers, and other creatives including, illustrators, film-makers, and graphic designers – as we considered how to submit a strong funding application. The morning’s facilitator, Catherine Mark, went through topics such as: reviewing funders’ criteria, pitching ideas to potential funders, budgeting, schedules and timelines, evaluating projects and reporting processes.
The key message was ensuring that sufficient time was spent in the planning and preparing stages prior to the writing of the application and proposal outline. Throughout the session, discussions enabled peer critique of project ideas, this in a bid to assist participants to fine tune their thinking of their project proposals.
This session was especially geared to support the AWT Publishing Fellowship participants on their applications for a Seed Fund of 4000 Euros. Furthermore, the session was delivered to encourage participants to seek out other sources of funding and to have the skills in which to make strong funding applications. There was a clear emphasis on seeing publishing as a business that can be profitable, so irrespective of sourcing donor funding, participants understood the need to see these sources not as an end in themselves, but as strategic opportunities in which to build a sustainable business that is indeed profitable.
Following the session, over a delightful lunch, there was an opportunity for networking across the two groups from the AWT Publishing Fellowship and the British Council Creative Arts programme.
