The problem is that wellbeing is so pertinent a word that it is used a lot. I don’t think I have read a single application form in the past five years that does not mention wellbeing. And I certainly don’t meet any charities that are not working to improve people’s wellbeing – whether as an overall mission or in all the daily small things. So using wellbeing in funding bids stops being useful and starts being meaningless.
I don’t think wellbeing is an easy word to avoid using altogether, but if you use it you must qualify it. One good way to do this is with short examples that bring your work to life. Do your service users go to their doctor less often? Do they sleep better? Do they feel more positive about themselves? Are they feeling more hopeful for their future? Are they buying healthy food? Or you could explain changes using one of the wellbeing tools available such as the Warwick-Edinburgh wellbeing scale. For example, “following our intervention, 60% of our clients increased their score when rating themselves on the statements such as ‘I’ve been feeling relaxed’ or ‘I’ve been feeling interested in other people’ – none of the time (10), rarely (2), some of the time (3), often (4), all of the time (5)”.
What you are looking to do is make sure the funder does not make wrong assumptions about the wellbeing your work brings about, or that you get lost amongst all the other charities saying the same thing. Because the funder is trying to work out which has the most impact – should they improve this group’s wellbeing for £25k or this other group’s for £50k? Is the difference to do with value for money or is one a greater depth and intensity than the other?
So when you find yourself writing ‘wellbeing’ in your next bid, make sure you stand out by adding detail to explain how you improve wellbeing and how significant and long-lasting this is.
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