Find out if you are ready to start working on your NPO application, before you stretch yourself
The National Portfolio 2028-33 portal opened on 20 October and closes at midday on 15 December. Whether you are still deciding, or you have started and aren’t sure your application is strong enough, I can give you a written answer in two working days on what to work on in the weeks you have left.
And if you want more than a verdict, I can work alongside you all the way to submission.
68% success rate on Arts Council England applications. Over £1 million raised for arts clients in 2025. Written by a consultant, not a template.
NEW FORM, looks simple but there is lots of preparation to do in advance to writing it
Project Grants asks about a project. The NPO form asks about an organisation: its purpose, its governance, its track record, its finances, its five-year plan. No attachments, no templates, no delivery plan. Everything the panel of three assessors sees is typed into eleven answer boxes, about 32,500 characters in all, and scored against four published criteria.
Most small organisations have never written that document, because nobody has ever asked them for it. And governance, one of the four criteria, is the answer that ends most first-time applications before the artistic case is read.
NPO Verdict by expert consultant
A clear answer on where you stand, in writing, in two working days.
You fill in a twenty-minute form about your organisation, and within two working days I send you back a written verdict on whether you should apply for NPO this round, with a score across the areas Arts Council will assess, the amount I think you should be asking for, and the three things I would fix first if I were in your position.
If it turns out this isn’t your round, I will tell you that too, and show you what to build so that the next one is.
£295, deducted from any further Raise the Arts NPO service within 30 days.
Verdicts are issued within two working days of payment.
The form and the verdict are confidential to your organisation.
Three ways to work directly with Dahna, or check the documents below available to download immediately
NPO Verdict
A written answer on whether this is your round, and what to work on first.
- A score across the areas Arts Council will assess
- The amount I think you should be asking for
- The three things I would fix first, each with a date and an owner
- An example answer for your weakest area, written from your own facts
Deducted from any further NPO service booked within 30 days.
NPO Strategy Sprint
Three facilitated sessions with staff and board, and a source document written from your organisation's own facts.
- The organising argument and the strategic decisions: the ask, depth or spread, what stops
- A full look at your evidence, and what to gather before the deadline
- Source document mapped to the eleven published answer boxes
- Board briefing paper and a read of your Arts Council artform Overview
A Sprint booked by 6 November finishes with time left to write before 15 December.
NPO Mock Assessment
I read your draft application the way an Arts Council assessor will, and score it before they do.
- All eleven answers scored against Arts Council's assessment areas
- A note on every answer: what is working, what will lose marks, and what I would change
- The three changes that will make the biggest difference
- A one-page summary of the results for your board
- Book by 5 November: The Evidence Standard and The Source Document free, plus a second look at your two most-changed answers before you submit
A few places only. Drafts to me by 27 November.
NPO Application Partner
Everything in the Sprint, taken through to a submitted application.
- Two rounds of drafting to the published character limits, Q1 to Q11
- The financial narrative and the form figures, reconciled to your accounts
- A mock assessment written as a three-person panel would write it
- Access support documentation where needed
Places close when three are filled.
The NPO Decision Pack
Is this our round, and what should we ask for?
Everything you need to decide, with your board, whether this is your round, what you would be signing up to, and how much you should really be asking for. The Excel scorer does the arithmetic for you.
The Evidence Standard
What counts as evidence, and where do we find it?
Which evidence Arts Council gives the most weight to, how to word what you already have, and where to find the free public data that backs up what you say about your audiences and your place.
The Five-Year Financial Restatement
Do our numbers say the same thing everywhere?
An Excel workbook and short guide that turn your accounts into the Arts Council year, build your five-year picture with the ask on its own line, and tell you when two figures don't agree.
The Source Document
How do we make every answer tell the same story?
The structure I use to write the whole application in one document first, in your own words, before cutting it into the eleven answer boxes, with two example paragraphs for every section.
The NPO Document Set, £595
All four documents together, £185 less than buying them separately. Between them they cover everything I would take an organisation through in a Strategy Sprint, for you to work through at your own pace with your board and team.
The same thinking I do with clients, for you to work through yourselves.
I wrote these four documents for organisations that want to do the work themselves but would like an experienced pair of hands guiding them through it. Each one takes one part of the application and walks you through it the way I would in a session, and you can share them with your whole board and team.
Built for organisations under £750,000 turnover applying for the first time or after a failed previous NPO application
Constituted (CIC, CIO, charity, company) with three or more years of delivery
A realistic case for at least £50,000 a year from Arts Council England
Delivering in or near a Culture Priority Place, or with leadership that meets the representation priority, and unsure how to evidence either
Current Project Grants recipients who have outgrown project funding
Boards that want a decision, in writing, before the autumn is spent
Not for: existing National Portfolio Organisations negotiating uplifts, organisations without an independent board, or anyone who wants a writer and nothing else.
Who you are working with
Dahna Borojević founded Raise the Arts to give small organisations and independent artists the fundraising expertise that larger institutions employ in-house. She holds an MA in Creative Producing and has a 68% success rate on Arts Council England applications across theatre, festivals, dance, literature and visual arts.
Key dates
Applicant Guidance: published September 2026
Application portal: opens 20 October, closes midday 15 December 2026
Decisions: July 2027
Funding begins: 1 April 2028
Verdicts issued within two working days. A Strategy Sprint booked by 6 November finishes with time left to write before 15 December. Access support requests to Arts Council England by 30 November. Application Partner places close when three are filled.