Chapter Six

Responding to Proposals

One of the tried-and-true aphorisms of foundation work is that no proposal arrives ready to fund. No matter how good the idea, there will be holes in one or more of the five plans that describe it: the implementation plan, the continuation plan, the evaluation plan, the dissemination plan, and the financial plan (budget). Your task is to decline proposals that will never be ready for prime time and to develop those that are not ready yet. As previously mentioned, the “never-will-be's” far outnumber the “maybe's,” usually by a factor of five or more to one. Those few survivors will require a lot of your attention and nurturing before they are ready to face the internal funding committee or the board of trustees. Most of this work will be routine, but some of it will be delicate, and a surprising amount of it revolves around managing applicants' expectations.