Online grant application forms that arrive complete.

Why Word and PDF application forms create work

With a Word or PDF form, applicants cannot tell whether they are eligible until someone replies. They skip required questions or send last year's version, and someone in your team copies the answers into a spreadsheet before the review can start. GOV.UK has advised HTML over PDF for years, because PDFs are harder to find, use and maintain and often do not work well with screen readers.

A guided online form asks the same questions in a sensible order, and only the ones that apply. If the amount is above your maximum grant, the end date is before the start date or a required document is missing, the applicant sees it straight away.

What the online application form does

• Eligibility check first: a few short questions tell applicants straight away whether their project can be funded.
• Checks while you type: required fields, formats, amounts and date logic, for example an end date after the start date.
• Conditional questions: someone who mentions match funding is asked where it comes from; everyone else never sees that question.
• Document uploads: each file is checked when it is uploaded, and attachments arrive with the application instead of by email.
• Review page and PDF copy: applicants check everything before they submit and keep a PDF of what they sent.
• Reviewer portal: a list of incoming applications, a detail view of each one and a CSV export for Excel.
• English and German: the interface and questions can be provided in both languages.

Try the demo: a fictional community trust

The demo at apply.schwerpunkt.tech runs on the same engine. A fictional funder, the Fairbourne Community Trust, offers project grants of up to £25,000 through six steps: eligibility, organisation, project, funding, documents and declarations. An explainer video walks through the journey, and the admin portal shows what your grants team would see. No real applications are processed.

Reference: a German federal funding agency

For a German federal funding agency (Projektträger des Bundes) we designed and built a multi-step, configuration-driven online application assistant: guided data entry, validation, PDF output and export into the agency's existing systems. It was accepted and handed over, and a follow-up contract for two funding portals is in progress. We do not name the client.

Online form or grant management software?

Grant management platforms such as Flexigrant, Plinth, SmartyGrants, Submit.com and Good Grants cover more than the application; Flexigrant, for example, lists eligibility, assessment and scoring, awards, monitoring and reporting. If you run several programmes with panels and grant monitoring, a platform may be the better choice. A custom form is the leaner option when the application itself is the problem. Published platform prices are in our guide How to move your grant application form online.

What is not built in

We would rather tell you now than after the intro call. The draft is kept during the browser session, but saving and coming back later by link or account is not built in; we build it when your programme needs it. Electronic signatures are not built in either. Assessment, scoring and grant payments are not part of the form: the data goes wherever you handle those today.

Accessibility and data protection

We develop to WCAG 2.2 level AA: keyboard access, screen reader support, clear error messages and sufficient contrast are part of the build from the start. We do not issue certificates. Councils are covered by the public sector accessibility regulations. Charities are usually exempt, unless for example they are mostly financed by public funding or provide services aimed at disabled people. The Equality Act 2010 duty to make reasonable adjustments applies to service providers more widely. Take legal advice on how the rules apply in your case.

If we host your form, it runs on servers in Germany (Hetzner, Nuremberg) with a data processing agreement; under the UK GDPR you need a written contract with any processor, so check it meets your requirements. Germany is covered by the UK's adequacy regulations for the EEA.

How your online form is built

1. 1Intro call (about 30 minutes, no obligation): you show us your current form and tell us where it causes work.
2. 2Concept with a clickable prototype: we turn your questions into steps, define eligibility rules and checks, and quote a fixed price for each stage before any code is written.
3. 3Delivery in stages: you test each stage before the next one starts.
4. 4Hosting or handover: we host and maintain the form on servers in Germany, or hand it over to your IT with documentation.