Bid Crucible Get a fixed fee

For UK charities

Show the change your work makes.

Grant writing and review for UK charities.

The deadline is set and the evidence is in three places. Grant applications for UK charities, written from your monitoring, accounts and delivery record. Theo Ilori writes every application and every tender response that leaves here. The initial read checks the fit before you pay.

A review is £195. A written application is £500 to £2,500. You hear back within 24 hours.

Base fees. An applicable award payment is additional, including for reviews. See award amounts and terms.

Illustrative grant application

From activity
to change.
What you do

Run local advice sessions.

What changes

People can take the next step with their housing problem.

What supports it

Follow-up records, with permission, showing what happened next.

The example shows the connection. Your application needs your own evidence.

Choose your starting point

Choose the help your application needs

01 / Already drafted

Review the draft

£195

A marked-up draft, criteria check and budget check, with the changes ranked.

One selected revision round included. Writing from scratch is separate.

Explore a review

02 / One live deadline

Write the response

£500 to £2,500

A finished application built from your evidence, with open decisions listed for you.

Scope and deadline agreed first. You approve and submit.

Explore the writing

03 / Ongoing opportunities

A month of applications

from £750 a month

Find suitable opportunities and write the applications your agreed monthly plan includes.

Paid monthly in advance. A month's notice ends it.

Explore monthly support

Budget for the award payment too. A grant or tender carries an additional payment if awarded, agreed before work starts. See amounts, due dates and full payment terms.

Inside the work / Illustrative example

Make the change visible.

An illustrative housing-advice application. Follow the activity into an outcome the records can support.

Read the complete example below.

Illustrative, not a client document1 / 4

A service record, opened

  1. ActivityHelp someone understand a tenancy letter
  2. RecordAdvice note and agreed next action
  3. Evidence boundaryAttendance alone does not show the outcome
Activity
Explain a tenancy letter
Record
Advice note + agreed next action
01 / The activity

Start with what your team does.

Advice notes can show more than attendance. Read what happened during the support.

Illustrative, not a client document2 / 4

Question: what difference will this make?

  1. Funder asksHow will people manage the next step?
  2. Relevant evidenceThe advice note records an agreed action
  3. Matched answerSupport helps people identify their next action
Question
How will people take the next step?
Evidence
The agreed action in the advice note
02 / The change

Answer the funder’s actual question.

Connect the activity to the change asked for, using only what the source can show.

Illustrative, not a client document3 / 4

The claim needs a stronger source

Do not claim from these records

The service keeps people securely housed.

Evidence gap: The notes record the advice, not whether the housing problem was resolved.

Needed
An appropriate follow-up record
Decision
Narrow the claim or gather the missing evidence
Unsupported
The service keeps people securely housed.
Needed
Follow-up evidence, or a narrower claim
03 / The gap

Keep the unsupported claim out.

A record of advice cannot establish a lasting housing outcome. That needs follow-up evidence.

Illustrative, not a client document4 / 4

Application ready for your decisions

  1. Supported caseAdvice and an agreed next action
  2. Open questionHow will you record what happens afterwards?

Before submission: Confirm the monitoring approach and funding ask. Approve the final application and submit it yourselves.

Supported
Advice and an agreed next action
Your decision
Confirm monitoring and the funding ask
04 / Your decision

Bring the decision back to your trustees.

The draft makes the supported case and lists the evidence and funding decisions still yours to settle.

Your application, ready for your approval

One grant application is £500 to £2,500. Half the fee starts the work and the other half is due on delivery. One round of the changes you pick is made for you inside the fee, and anything wanted after that is quoted first.

Everything produced is yours on delivery. You approve the final answers and submit through your own account. Your logins stay with you.

See the full writing scope.

Already have a draft?

See a worked review and its scope →

One round of the changes you pick is made for you inside the fee, and anything wanted after that is quoted first. Writing from scratch is separate.

The fee covers a draft up to 3,000 words or six scored questions, whichever comes first. A longer draft is priced from the free read before you send it.

Prefer to check it yourself? Use the grant checklist.

Applying throughout the year?

Plans cover up to 2, 4, 6 applications a month, depending on suitable opportunities and your evidence. A month's notice ends it. Compare capacity, availability and exclusions →

Allow for the payment on an award

On an award there is one more payment, a flat £250 on any award over £5,000, and £500 once the award reaches £25,000. It is agreed in writing before the work starts, and it is a flat amount rather than a share of what you raise.

It is invoiced when the award letter arrives. Read the complete payment terms.

From first message to your submission

  1. A free read and a fixed fee

    Send your contact details, the guidance and deadline if known. You get the fit, scope, fee and dates before committing.

  2. Bring the evidence together

    An hour to an hour and a half on a call, plus sharing your records and answering the questions only your team can settle.

  3. Approve it and send it

    Review the finished application, settle the open decisions and submit it as yours.

Answering the buyer's or the funder's clarification questions after a submission we wrote is quoted before it starts. There is no VAT to add to the published fees. Any applicable award payment is additional to the base fee.

Before your board signs it off

Do you guarantee to raise funds?

Read the answerClose answer

No writer decides the award. What is decided here is that every figure adds up, every answer sits under the criterion it is marked on, and nothing true about you is left off the form.

Who owns and submits the application?

Read the answerClose answer

Everything produced is yours on delivery. You approve the final answers and submit through your own account. Your logins stay with you.

How are our documents and AI handled?

Read the answerClose answer

Whether AI is used, and what happens to your material, are both answered on the security page.

Tell us about the application

Add your contact and organisation details, then a guidance link, file or short description. Include the deadline if known. For monthly support, tell us what you do and what you want to apply for.

Or call 07984 845440, or email [email protected].

1. Where we can reach you

Your contact details let us respond about your enquiry.

2. What would help? (required)
3. Tell us what you are working on

Add a link, a short note or a file. Any one is enough. For ongoing support, tell us what you want to apply for.

Attach guidance or a draft Optional files +
PDF, Word, Excel or a zip file. Up to 8 files, 25 MB each and 60 MB in all.Your files are used for your bid only, no model is trained on them, and they are deleted on request. The security page says how AI is used on them.A signed confidentiality and data handling agreement is available before you send anything. Ask in the note.
Add more background Optional details +
Your first read is free.

You get a view on whether to bid and the fixed fee for the work. You hear back within 24 hours.

The marked-up review is a paid service. See fees and scope.

Have a past submission? See the free-read scope +

Or send an application you already sent and lost, and attach it above. That read is free too, one per organisation, up to twenty pages. The marked-up read is the paid review, and its fee is on the pricing page.

We use this to answer your enquiry. Read the privacy notice.