Make your NPO application stronger before you submit it
The National Portfolio 2028-33 portal closes at midday on 15 December. If you are writing now and aren’t sure your application is strong enough, I can read your full draft and tell you honestly what is working, what weakens it and what to change, in five working days.
Or, if you would rather work on it yourselves, my masterclass on shaping your application is released on Thursday 19 November, with your own question answered.
68% success rate on Arts Council England applications. Over £1 million raised for arts clients in 2025. Written by a consultant, not a template.
NEW FORM, looks simple but there is lots of preparation to do in advance to writing it
Project Grants asks about a project. The NPO form asks about an organisation: its purpose, its governance, its track record, its finances, its five-year plan. No attachments, no templates, no delivery plan. Everything the panel of three assessors sees is typed into eleven answer boxes, about 32,500 characters in all, and scored against four published criteria.
Most small organisations have never written that document, because nobody has ever asked them for it. And governance, one of the four criteria, is the answer that ends most first-time applications before the artistic case is read.
Masterclass: Shaping Your NPO Application
A new form needs fresh thinking. Released Thursday 19 November.
A 30-minute masterclass on stepping back from your organisation, thinking about it differently, and shaping an application around the thing only you can say. This is a new form and a new round, so I won't pretend to know exactly how it will be scored. What I can offer is my view, from years of writing and reviewing Arts Council England applications, of what makes an application convincing and what quietly weakens it.
When you book, you can send me one question about your own application. Be as specific as you like: I anonymise every question before answering it.
£45, with The Five-Year Financial Restatement (normally £125) included as an instant download.
Questions close on Monday 16 November.
Watch as many times as you like until the portal closes on 15 December.
Work directly with Dahna, or download the documents below immediately
NPO Application Mock Assessment
An honest, detailed read of your full draft, by someone who will tell you when it is not good enough yet.
- Every answer scored, with a note on what is working, what weakens it and what I would change
- The three changes that will make the biggest difference
- A one-page summary of the results for your board
- A 30-minute call to go through my suggestions and answer your questions
Drafts to me by 27 November.
Shaping Your NPO Application
A 30-minute masterclass on stepping back from your organisation, thinking about it differently and shaping an application around what only you can say.
- Where applications lose their strength, and how to keep yours
- Proof over adjectives in the excellence question
- Making your ask and your figures tell the same story as your words
- Your own question answered, anonymised
- The Five-Year Financial Restatement included free
Questions close Monday 16 November.
The NPO Decision Pack
Is this our round, and what should we ask for?
Everything you need to decide, with your board, whether this is your round, what you would be signing up to, and how much you should really be asking for. The Excel scorer does the arithmetic for you.
The Evidence Standard
What counts as evidence, and where do we find it?
Which evidence Arts Council gives the most weight to, how to word what you already have, and where to find the free public data that backs up what you say about your audiences and your place.
The Five-Year Financial Restatement
Do our numbers say the same thing everywhere?
An Excel workbook and short guide that turn your accounts into the Arts Council year, build your five-year picture with the ask on its own line, and tell you when two figures don't agree.
The Source Document
How do we make every answer tell the same story?
The structure I use to write the whole application in one document first, in your own words, before cutting it into the eleven answer boxes, with two example paragraphs for every section.
The NPO Document Set, £350
All four documents together, £150 less than buying them separately. Between them they cover everything I would take an organisation through in a Strategy Sprint, for you to work through at your own pace with your board and team.
The same thinking I do with clients, for you to work through yourselves.
I wrote these four documents for organisations that want to do the work themselves but would like an experienced pair of hands guiding them through it. Each one takes one part of the application and walks you through it the way I would in a session, and you can share them with your whole board and team.
Built for organisations under £750,000 turnover applying for NPO 2028-33
Constituted (CIC, CIO, charity, company) with three or more years of delivery
A realistic case for at least £50,000 a year from Arts Council England
Delivering in or near a Culture Priority Place, or with leadership that meets the representation priority, and unsure how to evidence either
Current Project Grants recipients who have outgrown project funding
Current NPOs reapplying on the new form who want an honest outside read before they submit
Not for: organisations without an independent board, or anyone who wants a writer and nothing else.
Who you are working with
Dahna Borojević founded Raise the Arts to give small organisations and independent artists the fundraising expertise that larger institutions employ in-house. She holds an MA in Creative Producing and has a 68% success rate on Arts Council England applications across theatre, festivals, dance, literature and visual arts.
Key dates
Applicant Guidance: published September 2026
Application portal: opens 20 October, closes midday 15 December 2026
Decisions: July 2027
Funding begins: 1 April 2028
Mock Assessment drafts to me by 27 November. Masterclass released Thursday 19 November, with questions closing on Monday 16 November. Access support requests to Arts Council England by 30 November.