# application writing *Article written by FUND-IT team* When writing an application to get money for your map project, you will generally need to answer a few common questions. Here are some tips to answer them! ## Shortly describe your project Feel free to write the description of your project with your heart but here are some elements to help you in the writing process: USE-IT is a European label for tourist info made by locals, for young travellers. The USE-IT label was created 15 years ago and has grown to a well-known label throughout Europe for young, honest, sustainable tourism information. Today, local teams are organised into an international network called USE-IT Europe. Every team is independent and creates local maps of their city. This means that maps are made by local people, with local money, and with local tips, but they are supported by a European network that shares knowledge and resources. The maps get distributed through the network, so it improves the fame of the city in the rest of Europe. All maps have a different, local design. This is a great chance for local artists to promote their work all over Europe. All the maps share the same values: * USE-IT is made by locals; map makers don’t work with travel journalists, but with people who experience the city every day! * USE-IT is a non-commercial label; no one pays to appear on the map * USE-IT is made for young travellers, or everyone who identifies as that * USE-IT maps are updated every year * USE-IT wants to be the reflection of the soul of the city * USE-IT is a FREE map in English * USE-IT is without advertising * USE-IT promotes sustainable and responsible tourism In this part, you can describe your own motivation for the project and what you plan to do. ## Who will benefit from your project? **Young travellers**\ The first people who benefit from your project will be the young travellers who visit the city. They will find the best places to go, the best local food to eat, they learn about the city, they experience the place totally differently from how they would normally. For the time that they are in the city, they become ‘temporary locals’. They can also learn about cities they wouldn’t visit without USE-IT, and consider going there. **The city**\ City governments are always looking for ways to promote their city. This is an easy way to do it! Who can better promote the city to young travellers than young, enthusiastic locals? You can focus on what your city needs. Does it need more people visiting, or people behaving better when they do, for example. **The volunteers/workers in the project**\ Don’t forget that USE-IT is a great way to gain international work experience! Many cities work with very young people, who improve all kinds of skills while working on the map. You can think of writing, researching, making budgets, writing proposals, pitching, networking, etc. This is also partially because of the USE-IT Europe network, where they can attend online meetings and the live USE-IT meeting each year. **Local entrepreneurs**\ More tourists means more revenue from those tourists! It’s not all about the money of course, but especially for smaller entrepreneurs, some extra people in the city can make a whole lot of difference. Especially when they sell good quality, local stuff, it is a win-win situation. USE-IT likes to highlight shops, bars, restaurants, entertainment places and other places which might be harder to find for someone who doesn’t know the city. **International students**\ For international students, it can be hard to become a local in the short period they are in a city. The USE-IT map can help with that! All around Europe, universities have included the map in their welcome packages. **The region / country (for small countries)**\ Especially if a region has multiple USE-IT maps (for example: Calais-Lille, Nijmegen-Arnhem, Ostrava-Zlin-Brno-Prague), it can be of huge importance for national or regional tourism! The groups can work together to promote the cities and encourage travellers to travel between them. ## What will be your project's impact? You can explain what the impact of a USE-IT map would be for your city. Here are a few ideas, depending on what kind of city you live in and who you are talking to: **Small, less touristic cities** (for example: Bremerhaven, Erfurt): having a USE-IT map can attract tourists to your city. You put the name of your city in an European network and that way, the city benefits from USE-IT travellers. It also might help people to look further than capitals and in that way, help divide tourists all throughout the country. **Bigger, touristic cities** (for example: Prague, Paris): having a USE-IT map can divide the tourists around the city better. Prague, for example, tries to get people to look further than the city centre and avoid the busy touristic places. This lowers the pressure tourism has on big cities, which, we know, can be a big problem. **All cities**: USE-IT promotes sustainable tourism. This doesn’t just mean sustainable in a green sense of the word. We support sustainable travel, buying green products, encouraging sustainable food choices and shopping locally. But sustainable tourism means more. It means creating a ‘sense of place’, knowing where you are, respecting the city you are visiting and showing interest in it. We don’t recommend standing all-together on a small bridge in Venice to take the exact same photo. We ask something from our users, namely to take an interest in where you are and treat it respectfully. A few years ago, we have pledged to multiple principles within The Future of Tourism Movement. This is a coalition of six non-governmental organisations that have come together to stand united in an appeal for change. Other tourist organisations can commit to their principles and promise to work towards a better future of tourism. {% content-ref url="/pages/u5sAKCvFhCmiLc5Vg7q7" %} [surveys on impact](/use-it-wiki/about-use-it-europe/surveys-on-impact.md) {% endcontent-ref %} ## How do you plan to make it happen? So now you know what you want to do, you have worked hard towards a motivation and a budget, now you need a timeline. A good timeline shows possible funders that you are realistic in your plans, it shows what you need all that money for and it helps you when you start making your awesome map! We previously told you to make a timeline. Make sure to do this! In this part of the application, you can also write about your team, their expertise and all the help you plan to get from people who love the city and the project! ## Extra tips * The words you use in your description of the project need to fit with the sponsor you target. Key words are different for the Youth Department or Regional Tourist office for example! * Once the application is submitted, notify your contact person. She might notice some little mistakes or missing elements in your application and can come back to you quickly. It would be such a shame for your project not to be eligible for a small detail. *** {% hint style="success" %} *EXPLORE OUR RESOURCES*\ [The Perfect Funder Guidebook](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nwlgKDN6e0ojqbFbRzFVpTVmiZIdTaOe) by FUND-IT team {% endhint %} --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://use-it.gitbook.io/use-it-wiki/funding-your-project/finding-sponsors/application-writing.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. 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