We are very excited to announce that Brevio has launched their website and grant application platform. Storm has been Brevio’s dedicated technology partner for the past 18 months helping to design, build and develop their idea to transform the way charities apply for grant funding in the UK.
66% of grant applications fail
Working with researchers at the University of Bath, Brevio is an application platform designed to resolve the negative impact of inefficient processes when charities apply for funding and grants.
Their research (commissioned in 2018 and featured in The Telegraph last year) found that £1.1 billion per year was being spent by charities writing multiple grant applications, yet 66% failed to gain funding.
This outlined a clear need for a solution to reduce these inefficiencies using digital transformation and requiring systemic change. Brevio’s mission was to create one standardised application form for the Third Sector.
Creating a match-making service for charities and funders
To help make this idea a reality, Brevio teamed up with Storm to become an integral part of the ideation, prototyping, design and development of the platform. Working with our Ruby on Rails developers, our front end and design team, they have created a simple to use ‘match-making’ service between charities applying for grants and relevant grant funders.
By using Brevio, funding providers can specify a list of criteria that a charity must meet to be eligible for their grant, and charities will answer a set of questions to ensure they are matched with funding they can qualify for – increasing their chances of success.
Both the charity and funder need only fill in one form each on the platform to create their profile/details of the grant – Brevio will do the rest of the hard work. Upon completion of a charity’s details, the platform will provide a list of eligible grants they can apply for in a quick and easy manner.
It was very important to ensure the UX of the application tool was clear, straight forward and not time-consuming. The issue charities have faced in the past is that a typical grant application form can take around 19 hours to complete – and they generally apply for 22 grants a year!
The platform we have created for Brevio eliminates this problem by providing a streamlined way to fill in the required details with a five-step profile build that can be updated at any time. You can manage and track funding applications for each of your projects on your own Dashboard.
The public facing website is bright and colourful with plenty of personality to put the fun back in to grant making. It provides a clear message, is easy to navigate and presents all the necessary information, facts and figures required to motivate a visitor to sign up.
Transforming the Third Sector
David Kelly, Storm CEO said: “There are only a handful of projects that we have the privilege to work on which have the potential to entirely change an industry or sector, and this is one of them. Brevio is a fantastic concept, created by a local business, that will really make a difference to charities all over the UK.
“To say that I’m proud of my team for designing and building this platform is an understatement, and to know that we’re set to remain alongside Brevio as their technology partner as they go about changing UK grant making is exceptionally exciting.”
During the build, we had been taking feedback from some of the UK’s leading charities and funders to get the product to the starting line. As a result, Brevio already has pilots with major grant funders from the National Lottery, GOV UK and many more prominent organisations.
Founder and Chairman of Brevio, Marcelle Speller OBE, said: “Working with Storm has been a great experience. Not only did they understand what we were aiming to achieve from the start, but they also added great ideas and solutions all the way through the development. What’s more, it’s a pleasure to work with them!”
We wish Brevio every success and actively encourage any charities, foundations, trusts and grant funders to make use of this incredible solution. Particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic when charities are overwhelmed and in desperate need of funding. Use of the Brevio tool is even free to use until early 2021 to help the sector during these difficult times.
Visit the Brevio website for more information and share this solution with any charity workers, philanthropists or organisations in your network.
