You’ve spent months preparing your grant proposal—researching, cultivating, writing, editing, and formatting. Now comes the really hard part: waiting for the verdict. And there can be considerable waiting involved. Some funders might take eight or nine months to inform you of their decision, but most will let you know in one to four months.

You won’t just be waiting during that time: there are things you can do to help your application, and also things that can hurt your chances. In this chapter, I give you some guidelines so you know which are which.

No matter what the funder’s verdict, you’ll need to respond in a way that makes the best of either situation. Receiving the money doesn’t mean you can ignore the funder. And having your proposal declined doesn’t mean you give up. I cover both possibilities in this chapter.