The grants I submitted weren’t approved. Now what?
Today I want to share an answer to one of the questions I most frequently get from NGOs and nonprofits about the grant application process.
QUESTION: The grants I submitted weren’t approved. Now what?
ANSWER:
Here’s the thing, donors get many more proposals than they can fund, and that means that the average NGO gets only 20-40% of its proposals accepted (this varies a lot if you are submitting proposals mostly to open calls for proposals vs. to warm relationships). All this to say, don’t be disheartened! It’s part of the journey. The keys are to:
1. Follow up if you don’t hear back
Last year, after chasing one funder with a follow up email, a form submission AND a call, it turned out our submission went to an inbox no one checks. After that, quite quickly the foundation’s president reviewed and approved our proposal! When you receive a rejected application email, it’s important to follow up.
2. Ask for feedback
Not all funders are open to giving feedback (usually due to limited bandwidth) but unless they explicitly say they won’t give feedback, ask for it! This is a critical step in the grant application process and a powerful way to learn why your proposals are getting rejected, so you can improve them. One NGO I support asked for feedback to each declined proposal for one year and was able to get feedback from 3 funders. Guess what? All 3 funders told us the same thing: they received other proposals for similar programs that reach more participants and have greater scalability.
Want a free done-for-you rejected application email reply you can use to ask grant donors for this feedback? I’m sharing the email I use… it has worked magic for countless NGOs!
3. Use feedback for future applications
When that NGO got that feedback, they re-worked how the organization presented the depth vs. breadth of its programs and its place-based approach to scale and the “yes’s” started rolling in (and the team exceeded its grants target by $150,000 the next year!). You can read more here about how this NGO set up its grant application process.
4. Build relationships with donors after rejections
Once you have gotten over the feeling of rejection that always hits a little after you get a negative response, explore if there is an opportunity to build a relationship with that funder. Can you accept their decision AND genuinely seek to get to know them better, and to proactively share about the issue you work on or the region you work in, to educate them little by little? You can also let them see your dedication to continuous improvement.
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(Image by stockking on Freepik)
