More than filling in a funding application
The next NPO round comes at a significant moment for Arts Council England. Its new Strategic Framework is part of a wider reset following the Hodge Review, with ACE committing itself to simpler processes, greater transparency, stronger relationships with artists and communities and a clearer focus on the long-term health of the cultural sector.
The new framework, “Excellence. For Everybody. Everywhere.”, also shifts the emphasis in some important ways. Excellence and quality are much more explicit; equality and representation remain central; and there is an increased focus on place, geographic inequality and the contribution culture makes to communities and the wider cultural ecology.
For organisations considering NPO, I think this creates an important strategic question: not simply “How do we answer the application?” but “What is the strongest and most authentic case we have to make?”
ACE is clear that no individual organisation has to be “for everybody” or “everywhere”. The challenge is therefore not to squeeze everything you do into funding language or claim that you can meet every policy priority.
A stronger starting point is to ask:
- Where is our excellence most distinctive?
- Whose creative and cultural life are we changing?
- What does our location enable us to contribute?
- What relationships, partnerships and evidence make our ambitions credible?
- What can we genuinely deliver well between 2028 and 2033?
- Which parts of ACE’s framework are a natural expression of our purpose rather than something we are adopting simply because we are applying for funding?
Those are strategic questions, not form-filling questions. And with a shorter application window – and potentially a shorter form – organisations that have done that thinking beforehand should be much better placed to make a concise and compelling case.
Why work with me?
I supported a number of organisations through the previous NPO round, at different stages and with very different levels of intervention. I have also continued to work extensively with NPOs and other cultural organisations on strategy, governance, organisational development, Theory of Change and planning.
My particular strength is in helping organisations work out what they really want to say before worrying about how to say it.
That can mean creating the space for a leadership team or board to think strategically; asking the difficult questions that an internal team may find harder to ask itself; identifying what is genuinely distinctive rather than simply comprehensive; and helping connect artistic or cultural ambitions, public value, place, organisational capacity, evidence, governance and finance into one coherent proposition.
I am also very used to taking wide-ranging conversations, workshop material and contributions from different people and turning them into clear, concise language without losing the organisation’s own voice.
Depending on what you need, I can work with the Chief Executive or senior team, facilitate conversations with staff and boards, or act as an external critical friend to an internally led process. I work both in person and online.
Because ACE has indicated that the new application will be considerably shorter than previously, I am currently suggesting three indicative levels of support. We can firm these up once the Applicant Guidance is published.
1. Full strategic and application support – approximately 6–8 days
For organisations that want an external partner alongside them from initial thinking through to final submission.
This might include:
- An initial strategic review of your vision, ambitions and plans for 2028–33
- Facilitated work with leadership, board and/or staff where useful
- Testing your proposed programme and organisational plans against ACE’s requirements
- Reviewing governance, evidence, finance and organisational readiness
- Structuring the application process and identifying who needs to contribute what
- Working with you to develop and draft the strongest parts of your case
- Bringing different contributions together into a coherent organisational voice
- Detailed review, editing and challenge as the application develops
- A final “fresh eyes” review of the complete application before submission
This is particularly appropriate where the NPO application is part of a wider moment of organisational change, growth or strategic development – or where the organisation wants to use the process to clarify where it wants to be by 2033.
2. Targeted strategic support – approximately 3–4 days
For organisations with good internal capacity that want experienced external input at the points where it will make the greatest difference.
This might include:
- An initial strategic framing and application-planning session
- Identifying your most distinctive case, potential gaps and areas needing further work
- One or two targeted interventions on particularly challenging sections or issues
- Testing how convincingly the application connects excellence, people, place and organisational purpose
- Reviewing and restructuring draft material where necessary
- A detailed critical read of the developing application
- Final feedback and recommendations before submission
This gives you an experienced external perspective while leaving most of the drafting and project management with your own team.
3. Application set-up and critical review – approximately 1.5–2 days
For organisations that are confident about their strategy and have the internal capacity to write the application themselves.
This would normally include:
- An initial meeting once the guidance is available, to interpret the questions and identify the strongest underlying proposition
- Identifying potential gaps or issues that need addressing before drafting
- A detailed read and review of your near-complete application
- Written comments, suggested amendments and identification of areas that need strengthening
- A final conversation to help you prioritise changes before submission
This is designed to provide reassurance and rigorous external challenge without adding a substantial consultancy cost to the application.
The timetable
ACE’s current timetable is:
September 2026 – Applicant Guidance published
The application questions will be available from September. This gives organisations an important opportunity to understand the requirements, test their core proposition and identify gaps in evidence, plans, governance or finance before the application window opens.
October–November 2026 – Application window open
With a relatively short application period, the emphasis should be on turning the strategic thinking already done into a concise and coherent application, testing it and refining it – rather than trying to work out what the organisation stands for at the same time as writing the form.
December 2026–June 2027 – Assessment and decision-making
July 2027 – Decisions shared
April 2028 – New National Portfolio for 2028–33 begins
The substantial period between application and the beginning of the new Portfolio also creates some useful flexibility. Not everything necessarily needs to be completed by November 2026. Part of the work can be identifying what needs to be demonstrably in place at application stage and what can credibly form part of the organisation’s development towards April 2028.
Helga Henry 