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Bid Writing

I have extensive experience of supporting tender management, writing winning bids, and helping groups secure grant funding.  I appreciate times are hard – grant funding is getting more difficult to secure, and there is increasingly fierce competition for tenders. There are only so many hours in the day, and bids/ grants can take a lot of your time to get right. I can help you with: 

  • Support in becoming tender ready
  • Development of consortia/ collaborative bids
  • Writing responses
  • Advice on pricing and unit costing
  • ‘Critical friend’ review to maximise scoring
  • Preparation for interviews
  • Undertaking the bid management role


“David was supportive and ensured we retained focus during the commissioning process. 

Most importantly, he understood the aims and ethos of our organisation and enabled us to write a tender for a high quality service which we will be proud to deliver to our clients. 

We will certainly be retaining his services for future commissioning.”

 CEO, The Blue Door



Example: Grimsby and Scunthorpe Rape Crisis Ltd

Provides support to anyone that has experienced domestic abuse and sexual violence in North and North East Lincolnshire. 

The team lacked capacity and experience to craft the tender documents needed for a countywide domestic abuse support services contract. I worked closely with the Chief Executive Officer and key staff throughout, from initial specification review, through drafting method statements, to critical assessment of the emerging response.

My support increased the team’s understanding of the process of tendering, and increased the appetite for future opportunities to deliver public sector services.  As a direct result of my support, they secured the contract that had a budget of £1.02 million, and the tender submission scored 100% of the marks available for all areas of the quality scoring.  

For a case study of this example, or for further information on how I may be able to support you, please … 

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“David was incredibly responsive and understood the extremely tight timescales we faced. The commentary and advice he provided was accurate, appropriate and timely. 

We were finding one element particularly difficult to describe but David was able to encapsulate the process succinctly and precisely, providing clarity not just for the funder, but for us also! 

We highly recommend his work.”

CEO, Positive Futures Liverpool



Example: Positive Futures

A charitable youth organisation in Liverpool, aiming to see all young people realise their potential regardless of circumstance.

While the senior team are highly skilled, they lacked the time and capacity to submit a Youth Investment Fund application. I worked with the Chief Executive Officer and key staff to review the emerging bid and make suggestions for where responses could be enhanced to increase the scoring.

My approach acknowledged the time availability of the team, and I used an iterative process whereby each response was refined until it was the best that could be created and that Positive Futures were happy with. 

My support helped Positive Futures improve their own internal approaches to bid writing, and also enabled them to hone the delivery mechanisms to be set in place within the project. The application was a success and they received £560,000 of funding to deliver the much-need project for three years.

For a case study of this example, or for further information on how I may be able to support you, please … 

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“Extremely helpful – David always responds quickly providing depth of knowledge about funders and the sector. 

His insightful suggestions meant that we were confident of our targets and his critical but friendly eye helped us craft our funding bids to perfection – and as a result we have been successful. David is at all times professional, honest, accurate and good humoured. 

I look forward to working with him again”

Coordinator, Home-Start Richmondshire


Example: Home-Start Richmondshire

Home-Start Richmondshire has been successfully supporting families for almost a decade, including civilian and also armed forces families within Catterick Garrison.   With the end of several funded projects, the charity faced a deficit budget.  Support was required to appraise potential funding targets in line with its new business plan, scrutinise eligibility requirements, and support the writing of applications for both core and project costs.

I met with the management team, board and Treasurer to understand the present situation, and to review the fundraising plan. I then supported the crafting of grant applications to help align with guidance materials, focus the text, and maximise scoring for every question.

Due to my input, Home-Start Richmondshire successfully secured over £100,000 From Garfield Weston, Henry Smith, and the Royal British Legion – supporting delivery for three years. The support also assisted in developing skills and techniques that will be applied by the team internally when writing bids in the future.

For a case study of this example, or for further information on how I may be able to support you, please …


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