Don’t Be a Nudge
If you submitted your proposal well in advance of the funder’s deadline, wait a week before calling to be sure he received it. The funder’s program officer might have a suggestion for additional information that will help your proposal or even suggest you rework a section. Most often, he’ll simply acknowledge it was received.
Always ask when you should expect to hear the result of their consideration of your proposal. Mark this date on your calendar, and follow up again somewhat after that date if you haven’t heard from them. You might want to call earlier, but don’t. The funder’s staff has much more to do than keep you posted on the progress of your proposal.
These two calls are the only ones you should make while your proposal is under consideration, unless you have substantive information that could update your proposal.
What’s a substantive update? It’s not information that your chorus will be performing the fifth Bach cantata rather than the fourth one or the new soccer uniforms will be red instead of maroon. If, however, you have engaged a famous conductor to conduct one of the choral concerts or the soccer team has made it to the state semifinals, these bits of information would be worth passing on to the funder.
WORDS TO THE WISE
Send good news about your program or other grants received for it to the funder without delay. Not only can this strengthen your proposal, but it also reminds them of what you’re doing. Don’t report bad news unless it’s so bad (such as all your funding falling through) that you need to withdraw the proposal, or so public that you know the funder will discover the information on his own. In the latter case, contacting the funder allows you to try to put a positive spin on the issue.
You should report any changes that positively affect the funding of the program under consideration. This would include a grant you’d listed as “pending” coming through. (I wouldn’t contact a funder to tell them a grant didn’t come through. You can always deal with this kind of bad news later.) In-kind donations of space or materials might also be worth reporting, depending on the degree to which they affect your ability to carry out a program.
There might be times when you must withdraw a proposal. This has to be one of the hardest things you’ll ever have to do as a grant writer. If major funding from another source falls through, making it impossible for you to carry out the program, you have no choice but to withdraw the proposal. It’s also feasible that your charity could decide to postpone or cancel a program between the time you submit the proposal and when you expect a decision from the funder.
Withdrawing your proposal in cases such as these allows for a better long-term relationship with the funder. You never want to be in the position of sending back a check, which would be disrespectful of the time the funder spent in evaluating your proposal. Of course, programs can also change after you receive a grant, but I discuss that situation in Chapter 21.
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