Can you change a grant-funded project after an award?

Put your award letter, accepted application, approved budget and any later amendments together. Write down exactly what you want to change, then look for the relevant condition. Useful search terms include “changes”, “variation”, “approved purposes”, “budget” and “extension”.

• Money: moving funds between budget lines, using a contingency allowance or changing the source of a contribution.
• Delivery: changing the venue, activities, participants, number of sessions or delivery partner.
• Timing: starting later, finishing later or moving expenditure into another period.
• Organisation: changing the grant holder's details, bank account or main contact.

These are prompts for your review, not a universal list of approval requirements. The Community Fund's Million Hours Fund phase 3 guidance, for instance, asks grant holders to tell it in advance about changes to budget, delivery, contacts and bank accounts. It also identifies organisational changes that must be reported. Use the instructions for your own programme rather than borrowing another funder's process.

A useful request lets the funder compare the approved plan with a specific alternative. Start with the problem: a venue has closed, a supplier quote has risen, or participants have asked for a different timetable. Give the date you learned about it and attach the relevant evidence.

Then explain the effect on people and delivery. Can everyone still reach the replacement venue? Will fewer sessions leave enough time to achieve the intended result? If the change affects your planned outputs or outcomes, say which ones and propose revised targets. Avoid describing a reduction in activity as “no impact” without explaining why.

For Heritage Fund awards in the range cited above, change requests must be in writing and explain the effects on quality, cost, timing and future viability. Approval is not guaranteed. Even where your funder uses a different form, these questions make a useful preparation checklist.

This fictional example is a planning exercise, not a permitted transfer threshold. A community group has a £6,000 grant for workshops. It proposes moving to an accessible replacement venue that costs £400 more, funded by a £400 reduction in printing.

• Venue: approved £1,200; proposed £1,600; increase £400.
• Printing: approved £600; proposed £200; decrease £400.
• Other costs: unchanged at £4,200.
• Total: unchanged at £6,000.

The arithmetic balances, but the request still needs a delivery explanation. The group could attach the new venue quote, describe access and transport arrangements, and explain how it will provide materials to residents who cannot use digital copies. It should distinguish money already spent, orders already committed and funds still available.

Present both the original and proposed budget, with a separate column for the difference. Include all project costs so the funder can see whether a saving has simply moved elsewhere. If another contribution has fallen through, show that gap explicitly; our match funding guide explains how contributions fit into the total budget.

Adapt the following outline to your funder's required form or contact route. Replace every bracketed item and attach the revised plan rather than leaving the reader to reconstruct it from emails.

• Subject: Change request — [grant reference] — [project name].
• Current agreement: Our approved plan is [activity, dates and relevant budget lines].
• Reason: On [date], we learned [what changed]. We have considered [alternatives].
• Proposal: We request permission to [precise change], taking effect from [date].
• Impact: This would change [costs, timetable, participation or targets]. We would manage the risks by [actions].
• Attachments: Revised budget and timetable, plus [quotes or other supporting evidence].
• Decision needed: Please confirm whether you approve this proposal and whether we need to complete any further steps. We need a decision by [date and reason].

State honestly whether any affected spending or activity has already happened. If it has, explain the dates, amount and circumstances, and ask how to proceed. Do not present a completed change as a future proposal.

While waiting, keep the affected commitment on hold where possible and ask the funder what work can continue. Do not treat an acknowledgement email or silence as approval. If the matter is urgent, explain the practical consequence of delay and use the contact route in your award documents.

When a decision arrives, check precisely what it covers. Permission to change a venue does not necessarily answer a separate request for extra time. Record any conditions, acceptance steps or new reporting dates, then give the agreed version to the people managing bookings and payments.

Keep a simple change log: request date, reason, proposed change, funder decision, approval reference and the budget version it relates to. Preserve the original budget alongside the revised one. This makes it easier to explain spending against the agreed plan in your grant monitoring report.

If the funder declines, ask whether a smaller alternative would be acceptable before committing to it. Treat a request to change an existing award separately from a search for new funding; a possible future grant should not be recorded as money already secured.