Every fund on Plinth has its own application form. The form is what applicants see and complete, and their answers become the application you assess.

An application form belongs to a fund, so the fund has to exist first.

If the fund does not have a form yet, the form builder opens so you can create one. If it already has a form, that form opens and you can edit it.

The form's name sits at the top of the builder, and the pen beside it lets you rename it. Linked form underneath confirms which fund the form belongs to.

The question types you can use are listed in the Add Questions panel down the left of the form builder, grouped into free text, structured answers and uploads. Drag the type you want into position, or click it to add it to the end.

Choose the type that matches the answer you need, not just the question you want to ask: a type that captures a date, a number or a choice gives you data you can filter and report on later, where free text does not. Some types do more than collect text: Charity Commission looks up a registered charity, and Postcode, Country, Date and number all give you data you can filter and report on. For what each type captures, see Field Types.

Each question sits on its own row, showing the question, the type of answer it takes and whether it is required. Use the arrow at the end of the row to open it up, change the wording or the answers it offers, and then save the form. The handle at the start of the row drags a question into a different position.

Long forms are easier to complete when they are broken into parts. The dropdown at the top of the builder moves between sections, the + beside it adds one, and the Cover page toggle turns a cover page on or off. The markers across the top of the form show how many parts an applicant will work through, with C for the cover page and a number for each section. Each section header also shows how many questions it holds.

A cover page is a good place for guidance on what you are looking for, a reminder of who the fund is open to, and the contact details applicants should use if they get stuck. Choose Cover Page in the dropdown to edit it. Background holds the branding: an Organisation Logo with Change Image and a Logo size, a Show organisation name toggle, and settings for text colour, background colour and a background image. The content editor underneath is where the wording goes, with headings, bold, lists and links.

The preview button at the top right of the builder shows the section you are on as an applicant will see it, so you can check the wording and the order before anyone applies. A bar above the form confirms which part you are looking at, and the marker for that section is highlighted. Each question shows the kind of answer it expects — a character limit on a short text question, single select on a dropdown, an address field, and so on. Press the button again to return to editing.

Save and view does the same thing for the whole form once you have saved it.

If you invite people from outside your organisation to assess applications, you can keep specific answers away from them. On each question you want to hide, tick Redact for external assessors, then save the form. Those assessors will not see the question or the applicant's answer to it.

This is question-level privacy only. To hide applicant names, email addresses and addresses across the whole assessment, use the redaction setting in the fund's Assessment tab. See Working with External Assessors and Assessing Grant Applications.

The form builder has an AI assistant, Pippin, in a panel on the right. It is quicker than building a long form by hand, and useful when you already have your questions written down somewhere else.

Pippin can:

Run sense check reads the whole form and flags common problems — questions that duplicate each other, ask two things at once, or leave out something an assessor will need. It is worth running before you open a fund for applications.

Pippin drafts; you decide. Read what it produces before saving, and change anything that does not match what you actually want to ask.

Click Save when you have finished, or Save and view to save and see the form as an applicant will. You can reopen it any time from Edit form at the top right of the fund.

Take care editing a form while the fund is open for applications. Applicants who are part-way through, and those who have already submitted, will have answered the earlier version of your questions, which makes comparing applications harder.

If you run the same programme again, duplicate the fund rather than rebuilding the form. Duplicating copies the fund's settings and its form, so you only have to adjust what has changed for the round. See Setting Up and Managing Funds.

Once the form is saved and the fund is open, Copy link at the top right of the fund gives you the link to send to applicants or add to your website.

If you would rather applicants browsed your open funds in one place and checked whether they are eligible before they start, a funding portal does that. See Funding Portals & Eligibility Quizzes.

New Application on the Applications tab lets you fill the form in on someone's behalf, for an applicant who has sent you their answers another way.

Completed forms arrive in the fund's Applications tab. Each one is given an identifier built from the fund prefix, so applications stay traceable to the fund they came from.

The answers applicants give are also used later in the process. Your funding preferences and the answers on the form give Pippin the context it needs when it drafts assessments and feedback, so a form that asks clearly for the things you actually judge on produces better support downstream.