What Funders Want
(Part 3 of 3):
Evidence of real community need

In the third part of our What Funders Want series, Emma Insley outlines what funders want to see first – evidence of real community need.

When fundraisers talk about pressure, it often comes back to the same question:

Why should a funder choose us?

It’s a tough place to sit. Demand is rising, competition is fierce, and charities are expected to demonstrate strong delivery plans, clear outcomes and compelling impact. All of that matters.

Across the UK, major funders such as National Lottery Community Fund, BBC Children in Need and Sport England are intentionally designing their strategies around listening to communities, targeting investment where need is greatest, and sharing power with the people closest to the issues.

The requirement of grantees is consistent with this approach: strong proposals start with a clear, grounded understanding of need.

This blog explores what funders are really listening for when they talk about ‘evidence of need’, and the role fundraisers play in helping their organisations articulate it.

What funders mean by ‘evidence of need’

Funders do value data. National statistics, sector research and policy evidence all have an important role to play – and many funders expect to see them used to set context and demonstrate scale.

But increasingly, funders are clear that data alone is not enough. They are looking for evidence that organisations understand how an issue is experienced locally, and that this insight has shaped the work.

They are implicitly asking:

• Why this issue, here and now?
• How is it experienced locally?
• Why is this organisation well placed to respond?
• Why is this solution likely to make a difference?

This is why funders place such weight on local insight, community engagement and lived experience.

That means combining broader data with insights from the people closest to the issue – service users, communities, frontline staff, and partners. Funders are often listening for how these different sources of knowledge sit alongside each other, and whether they tell a coherent story.

Statistics can describe the problem. Real voices help explain how it is lived, why it matters, and what a meaningful response looks like in practice.

Where your case for support can start to wobble

Many funding bids are built around strong ideas and well-intentioned services. I often see teams doing their best to design something meaningful under real time pressure. But sometimes the justification of need comes later, shaped to fit an already-designed solution.

This can create subtle weaknesses that later turn into bigger cracks.

When need is assumed rather than explored, impact claims can feel overstretched. Outcomes may sound ambitious, but disconnected from the complexity of people’s lives. Funders can sense when a project has been designed for a community rather than with it, even if the delivery itself is thoughtful and skilled.

This is not about doing things ‘wrong’. It reflects the real pressures charities face – limited capacity, competing priorities and the need to respond quickly to funding opportunities. But it does help explain why funders often probe hardest at the start of a proposal, asking how organisations understand the problem they are trying to address.

What evidence of real community need often looks like

Evidence of need does not have to mean large-scale research or formal consultation exercises.

In practice, it often shows up as:

• Patterns emerging from repeated conversations with people using services
• Feedback gathered during delivery, not just at the start or end
• Small but meaningful adaptations made in response to what people say
• Clear acknowledgement of whose voices are shaping the work – and whose are not yet

Many organisations are already doing more of this than they realise. The challenge is often not doing the listening, but naming it, capturing it and connecting it to strategy and funding conversations. Funders are asking for reassurance that insight is not a one-off exercise, but part of how organisations learn, adapt and respond over time.

The fundraiser’s role: building insight through relationships

Strong funding cases are rarely built in isolation. They rely on relationships inside organisations as much as outside them.

Fundraisers are often the bridge between:

• Delivery teams who hold rich, often tacit knowledge
• Leaders thinking strategically about direction and priorities
• Funders trying to understand whether the work is rooted in reality

This involves building trust with colleagues, asking thoughtful questions, and helping teams articulate what they already know but may not yet have named. It is relational, not just technical, work.

When done well, it helps organisations move from “we believe this is needed” to “this is how we know it is needed”.

Laying the foundations for impact and learning

Clarity about community need does more than strengthen a funding bid.

It creates a foundation for everything that follows – impact storytelling, evaluation and learning, and projects that make a sustained impact. When the starting point is well understood, outcomes feel more believable, stories feel more grounded, and reflection becomes more meaningful.

Rather than increasing pressure to over-claim success, evidence of need can reduce it. It allows charities to talk more confidently about progress, complexity and learning over time.

The real insights come from listening

Funders are not expecting charities to have all the answers – and if you’re worried that they are, you’re not alone. But they are increasingly looking for organisations that can show they understand the problem they are responding to, and that they are willing to listen, reflect and adapt.

Doing this well takes time and care. Participation is not a quick fix. But it strengthens credibility, trust and long-term relationships with communities and funders.

Evidence of real community need is not a hurdle to get over. It is the starting point for more confident, honest conversations about why your work matters.

This blog is part of our What Funders Want series, which unpacks how funders’ expectations around learning, impact, and community insight are evolving and how fundraisers can respond.