Winning funding is about more than just making a good case—it’s about proving your impact. Funders need to see clear, compelling evidence that their investment in your charity is making a real difference. To stand out in a competitive funding environment, your ability to present detailed, professional reports is crucial.
When applying for funding, you need to show exactly how grants are being used and the outcomes being achieved. A well-structured report:
- Demonstrates accountability and transparency
- Clearly communicates the impact of your work
- Strengthens relationships with funders by building trust
- Helps you refine your own strategy and resource allocation
Funders rely on high-quality data to make decisions about future grants. By providing accurate, insightful reports, you not only increase your chances of securing funding but also position your charity as a responsible and reliable partner.
The challenge: limited time and resources
For many charities, especially smaller ones, compiling detailed impact reports can be a daunting task. Gathering, organising, and presenting data in a clear and visually compelling way takes time.
How a CRM can help
This is where a sector-specific CRM* makes all the difference. The right CRM enables you to:
- Generate professional reports at the touch of a button
- Track and measure impact with ease
- Create visually appealing charts and graphs that clearly communicate key insights
- Adapt reports to different funder requirements without excessive manual work
As Jonathan Dixon, director of operations at Essex Sight, explains, “Being able to provide detailed facts and figures was instrumental in us winning a contract with the county council. We used our CRM to drill right down to show how support is being delivered in different postcode areas, and demonstrated how it could all be tracked and is fully auditable. This really helps decision-making about community resources.”
Neil Henderson, CEO of Safeline UK, shares a similar experience: “Our CRM is helping us create more compelling bids. It helped us secure new funding worth £420,000 from the Department of Health and Social Care to support clients at risk of suicide. It’s been an incredible investment.”
Not all CRMs are created equal, and reporting capabilities vary widely. When looking for a system, there are four important points to consider:
- Is it designed specifically for charities?
- Does it offer a full suite of reporting tools?
- Can it generate clear, professional reports quickly and easily?
- Does it allow flexibility to match funders’ reporting requirements?
Getting the right CRM will make your funding applications stronger and increase your charity’s ability to secure vital resources.
If you want to enhance your reporting capabilities and create more compelling bids, consider a CRM designed for the charity sector, such as Charitylog. For more information on how Charitylog can help, get in touch with our team today.
* If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a CRM (client relationship management) system is a software platform that helps manage your interactions with clients, referrers, volunteers and more. It keeps all data in one central place, and its reporting tools will help you monitor and evidence spending and outcomes.
Essex Sight and Safeline both use the Charitylog CRM.