These Tips are not a guarantee of a grant, but will help your application rise to the top:
Make sure you are in our funding geography. If you are not sure, reach out.
Look at past grants and amounts to get a sense of what & how we fund.
Follow the directions - especially on how to attach documents & submit. If you are not tech savvy to combine PDF's, ask for help from within your group.
Keep your description concise and specific to your program & your area. We are fully aware of the mathematics of overpopulation.
A bit about sustainability of your program...
With spay-neuter, it's especially important to be able to offer your program year round.
Grants should always be extra funding, not the only source of funding. In other words, if your program stops when the grant money runs out, that is not sustainable.
This pyramid from Stacy LeBaron at Community Cats Podcast is a great visual. If your organization has a budget of $10,000 and spends all it on sanctuary, rescue & adoption and $0 on spay/neuter, that indicates that spay-neuter is not a priority for your organization. On the other hand, an organization that allocates a $3,000 (or more!) of a $10,000 budget, is a sustainable program. Grants would be an extra boost.
For Two Mauds, it's not a matter of a $5,000 annual budget vs. $50,000 annual budget, it's a matter of allocating resources and efforts on the most proactive ways to save animals - and that is spay/neuter! This is our funding niche.